What are we to do in education?
by Walter Smith
In the recent Conference Board of Canada report on education and skills, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, New Brunswick, and Newfoundland and Labrador all earn “D’s” overall, while P.E.I. earns a “D–,” scoring worse than the lowest-ranked international peer country. British Columbia, Ontario, and Alberta are the top performers among all the provinces, earning “B” grades on the Education and Skills report card. The largest provincial differences occur on student reading, science, and math skills—with provinces earning anywhere from an “A+” to a “D–” grade. The PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment) Scores produced by OECD (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development) rates Canada as #2 in achievement among the 15 countries tested, second only to Finland. We are graduating almost everybody, but many are not learning. In fact if we go back 40 years, the CBC reports were similar. The only difference then was that there were a lot less high school graduates.
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