October 20, 2002

The Teach Your Children Well Project is an attempt by QLC Educational Services Inc. (Quinte Learning Centres) of Belleville, to bring to the global English-speaking market a series of empirically proven products in math and reading at the elementary school level.

These products originate from an educational model derived by QLC which has demonstrated significant effectiveness in teaching children and adults for three decades.

Amongst its products, Math Tutor was invented fifteen years ago by Belleville Educationalist Michael Maloney and Michael Summers, and comprises a series of eight arithmetic programs that teach all of the major concepts of math, from addition to algebra, to children in elementary grades.  According to the company, Math Tutor, on the original DOS-based software, was marketed very successfully but did not have the flexibility to do the requisite upgrades.

Now, with a grant from the National Research Council Canada’s Industrial Research Assistance Program (IRAP), and to make use of today’s latest software technology, QLC has come up with a deal to produce a Windows XP version of Math Tutor that will be available to public schools in all English-speaking countries.

Math Tutor is currently a series of eight computer software programs.  Each program provides complete instruction for one of the following aspects of math:  Addition; Subtraction; Multiplication; Division; Fractions; Decimals; Percents; and Ratios.  These products are now available on floppy diskettes, CD-ROM discs and as internet downloads from the Teach Your Children Well.ca web site.  Since its original introduction, Math Tutor has racked up sales in excess of $2.5-million.  Now, with the new technology of Windows XP, QLC could efficiently upgrade its product for additional sales promotion.

With advice and assistance from the Trenval Business Development Corporation’s Export Development Advisor, QLC obtained funding from the Program for Export Market Development (PEMD) in 2001 to develop the homeschool market in the U.S.  To date, QLC has established relationships with eleven regional, national and international distributors.  These include Christian Book Distributors, the largest national direct sales distributor in the U.S. homeschool market.  Another arrangement with Family Christian Stores will see QLC’s products being carried in 35 of their 400 stores across the U.S. as a pilot project.

QLC’s Teach Your Children To Read Well and Math Tutor products were extensively reviewed in the November/December 2001 issue of "Practical Homeschooling", a leading homeschooling magazine in the United States.  Michael Maloney was featured on the front cover and the magazine’s Founder and Editor Mary Pride, considered the guru of homeschooling, liked the product so much she coined it "The Maloney Method".  Using the Maloney Method, students can achieve “Two years of academic advancement in one year of studies.  Even if your child has been labeled learning disabled or educationally handicapped”, says Mary Pride.

This application of new technology, using the flexibility of Windows XP, has opened the doors for a licensing agreement with Scholastic Inc. of New York, which will see them produce, market, sell and undertake order fulfillment to the public schools in Canada, the United States, United Kingdom, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand.  QLC retain all rights to Math Tutor for the homeschool and mass markets.

In addition, QLC has designed and created a commercially enabled web site (www.teachyourchildrenwell.ca) to advertise and sell their products through the internet.

Michael Maloney of QLC has received previous awards for these training programs, including the Canada Post 2001 National Literacy Educators Award.

We believe that the use of this new technology advances the principles of Community Development, as it provides a much greater scope for product distribution and sales that in turn will help the education of students around the world, including those with learning disabilities.

The success of Math Tutor’s past performance is widely recognized and as such has already demonstrated practical and measurable benefits.  The fact that the Industrial Research Assistance Program (which closely scrutinized their application) approved the submission to improve and upgrade their technology, is also an excellent qualifier.

Trenval Business Development Corporation is very proud of the accomplishments of one of our clients QLC Educational Services Inc.