ACT public primary schools will get grants of up to $19,000 to buy evidence-backed reading and maths materials as part of a system-wide overhaul of how basic skills are taught.
Every primary school will receive a share of $700,000 in funding to purchase decodable reading books for kindergarten to year 2 students.
If a school already has enough readers, they can purchase numeracy resources.
Education Minister Yvette Berry said teachers would also get training on how to use the materials as part of the rollout of the Strong Foundations literacy and numeracy reforms.
"We'll be providing that explicit training to beginning teachers who start and induct into our schools early in the new year, and for existing teachers who need additional support that will be provided as well," Ms Berry said.
"So we want to make sure that we don't just have the tools, that we provide the support for teachers who need it to be able to apply the tools to their instruction in the classroom."
Grants of between $5000 and $19,000 will be available, depending on the school's size.
Schools will have to select reading books in line with advice on the Australian government's Literacy Hub website and will need to show the Education Directorate how they spend their grant money.
Decodable readers are books that gradually introduce beginning readers to the graphemes (letters and letter combinations) and phonemes (sounds) in a sequential way. The books encourage the reader to sound out the words.
Previously, schools were allowed to purchase levelled readers, otherwise known as predictable readers. These readers introduce many letters and sounds at once and could encourage students to guess unknown words based on the context or illustrations on the page.
Ms Berry said there had been no decision on whether schools would need to remove predictable readers from classrooms.
"The program that schools are being asked to introduce right now is by using decodable readers ... Predictable readers might be able to be used in other circumstances.
"But what we're asking is for schools to implement the Literacy and Numeracy Program that has been recommended by the expert panel through Strong Foundations."
Evatt Primary School principal Michael Hatswell said his school has been using a synthetic phonics approach to teaching children to read for a few years.
"We've had decodable readers for a number of years here. We have been implementing that and I guess the new funding package the Minister has announced today will just be able to further enhance the resources that we have," Mr Hatswell said.
"If we can continue to refine the craft of the teachers to particularly teach the students in a way that is better than yesterday, well it will only enhance the learning of the students."
From next year all year 1 students in public schools will be doing a phonics screening check as part of the Strong Foundations reforms.
ACT Alliance for Evidence-Based Education spokeswoman Jessica Del Rio welcomed the investment in decodable readers.
"It's important that this investment in books for early readers is complemented by great professional development for teachers on the core skills for reading because the books in isolation won't change reading outcomes for kids who are in kindy and year 1," Ms Del Rio said.
