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 --- avast! Antivirus: Outbound message clean. Virus Database (VPS): 000773-1, 09/06/2007 Tested on: 9/6/2007 11:05:57 AM avast! - copyright (c) 1988-2007 ALWIL Software. http://www.avast.com _______________________________________________ Futurework mailing list [email protected] http://fes.uwaterloo.ca/mailman/listinfo/futurework
