Pete,
The report did focus on Canadians. You raise excellent points and
questions below. I pretty much question anything a bank puts out as
fact. I don't disagree with the report's conclusions, for the most part,
but how facts are gleaned is rarely revealed in a newspaper article.
Good P.R. TD thinking outside the box. Ironic findings, given that the
bulk of their loans are secured almost solely by material assets, yet I
suppose that politicians will be able to run with these figures to
create literacy programs, and save the banks billions on training and
blunder costs. If people were better skilled, however, they wouldn't be
applying for the majority of positions with the bank. TD's concern is
with productivity, and the cost of training their staff, both new and
existing. Their concern is, however, particularly focused on
"deterioration in Canada's trend rate of productivity growth," because
the country's growth means better profits for TD.
A point to better literacy -- better educated people would not likely
keep their money in banks much longer.
Literacy and numeracy rates would not necessarily sky rocket should
employers pay a better wage, but at least the disadvantaged could
possibly enroll in a course or two because they could hire a babysitter,
or use their spare time for something other than another part time job.
They might even be simply happier because they get to do something they
enjoy with spare time/money, and thereby develop a better disposition.
Do employers ever stop to think that a lot of work is far too mundane to
inspire productivity? Our imaginations are becoming rather stimulated,
thanks to technology, and boring jobs can't keep even loyal staff
interested. Perhaps one day corporations will appreciate that the
current educational system is discouraging learning because of the focus
on linear knowledge, and the products produced (by the linear learning)
are in themselves the very vehicles to poor brain function.
Skeptically, I'd say that those at the top want this situation to
continue, but what we're experiencing is burn out. That will lead to
systemic unrest, and both education and the workplace will have to bend
to reach the light.
Natalia
pete wrote:
On Thu, 06 Sep 2007, Natalia <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
CanWest News reported today that the TD Bank recently arrived at a
dollar value to assign to literacy/numeracy skills based on a study of
a number of Canadian and international studies. The report found that
about 40% of youth lack literacy skills and and roughly half of adults
lack both literacy and numeracy.
"An increase in literacy of one percent would mean a $32 billion
increase in national income -- three times the returns on investment in
machinery," Craig Alexander, TD Bank deputy chief economist and author
of the report said. More dependence on service-based, rather than
industrial sectors, he explained.
He stressed that improving literacy improves civic engagement: "People
are more likely to vote if they can read the ballot."
A 2003 report placed Canada 3rd in reading skills out of 41 nations,
7th in math and 11th in science. There were disparities between
provinces, girls and boys, immigrants and Canadian born, and urban and
rural divides.
Natalia
How general is this result, I wonder - did they say it only applies to
Canada? The extrapolation is $1B per million population per percent.
I might add that there is a limit to the available increase,
particularly for numeracy, which is quite a lot below 100% - remember
50% of the population is of below median intelligence; I would guess
that numeracy can only be achieved by about 85% of the population.
-PV
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