Bad news from a list I'm on.
Ed
by Viewpoint: The Red Deer Advocate
The Hamilton Spectator
(May 19, 2005)
In a country as developed as Canada, we take literacy for granted. We assume
everyone can read a newspaper, pull some meaning from a chart and fill out a
basic form, like an application for a driver's licence.
Year after year, we are told that Canadian students graduating from our
public schools rank among the world's best -- that we're in that top group
where there are only slight differences left to rank our students on
reading, science and mathematics.
So it's kind of a shocker to see another report telling us that no less than
42 per cent of Canadians are functionally illiterate. Worse, they tell us
this number has not changed in 20 years.
The first reaction has to be disbelief. Who are these people saying this
about us? Well, they're Statistics Canada and the Organization for Economic
Co-operation and Development. Not exactly groups prone to exaggeration.
Next, most people would ask for their definition of being literate. The test
was given in 2003 to 20,000 Canadians, and their results were compared with
similar samples of six other industrialized countries, including the U.S.
and in Europe.
The next obvious question is: Where did we rank? Canada came out in the
middle of the pack, and just ahead of the United States. Norway came out on
top. The testers define literacy as something more than basic reading and
being able to sign your name. Most people would agree that's no longer good
enough to function in our society.
If this study is to be believed, many people in Canada cannot find the
meaning of a story, compare values of different sets of numbers, or
understand what's being asked when filling out a government form.
The result so contradicts our sense of Canadian society that it's hard to
speculate on what we should do with this information. Meanwhile Canadians
are graduating from high schools not educated enough to exercise their full
rights as citizens. And you wonder why people think they can get away with
siphoning tax money into their own pockets.
Some findings:
1. People with low literacy levels have a 26 per cent unemployment rate in a
society where almost half of new jobs require at least 16 years of
education. But less than 10 per cent of this group takes advantage of
upgrading opportunities.
2. Children in poor families are most likely to lack literacy, dooming
another generation to poverty.
3. >From a base salary of $30,000, income rises just under $2,500 a year for
each additional year of education you take.
4. Almost three-quarters of 626 Canadian companies surveyed feel that they
have a significant problem with functional literacy in some part of their
organization. But only about 10 per cent of Canadians view literacy as a
problem.
It seems obvious that until someone comes up with a better alternative,
responsibility lands on parents who must stay on their children's case to
ensure that education stays valued within the family. Don't let your kids
grow up in the 42 per cent group of this study. We say we are an advanced,
technological society. Well we're not, if 42 per cent of us aren't included.
____________________________________
Barbara Anello
Acting Chair
DAWN Ontario
975 McKeown Ave. Unit 5A, Suite 162
North Bay, ON P1B 9P2
705.494.9078 [Voice]
Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
URL: http://dawn.thot.net
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