The Buffalo Youth Opportunity Program and Catholic Charities will provide 100 students with eight hours a week of tutoring at locations that will include Hispanics United, Friends of the Elderly and various city churches.

The tutoring sessions, orchestrated by Mayor Anthony M. Masiello’s administration and the Buffalo Employment and Training Center, aim to build on the 1 1/2 hours of daily instruction students will receive in summer school math classes.

“In today’s world, getting a high school diploma is not an option,” Buffalo School Superintendent Marion Canedo said at the news conference announcing the tutoring plan. “But we all have to pull together to make sure they get it.”

The tutoring program, scheduled to begin Monday, will follow summer school classes each morning. For two hours Monday through Thursday afternoons, state-certified math teachers will tutor students in groups of about five.

More than half the students who failed the math exam last month opted not to take advantage of the school system’s extra help sessions this spring, so organizers worry that enrolling them in additional classroom time this summer will prove even harder.

But community leaders say that passing the math exam must take priority over all other activities.

“The kids are just going to have to talk to their bosses and get them to understand, because if they don’t pass this test, then they’re going to be working at the same level of job for the rest of their lives,” said Joanne Cole, Western New York coordinator for Citizen Action, the group that sparked the tutoring effort.

Graduation ceremonies probably will be held at the end of summer for students who pass the exam in August, Canedo said.

Parents or students interested in the tutoring program should call Cole at 855-1522.