Literacy skills and issues in Canada Literacy skills and issues in Canada
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Literacy
Adult Literacy and Life Skills Survey
http://www.statcan.ca/Daily/English/050511/d050511b.htm
In Canada, about 58% of adults aged 16 to 65 possessed skills in the top three literacy levels on the prose scale, indicating that they could meet most everyday reading requirements… A large number of adults, well over three million Canadians aged 16 to 65, have problems dealing with printed materials and most likely identify themselves as people who have difficulty reading…Variation in Literacy Skills among Canadian Provinces
http://www.statcan.ca/Daily/English/040714/d040714b.htm
In general, students from higher socio-economic backgrounds tend to have higher literacy skills than other students. However, students from poorer socio-economic backgrounds have better literacy skills if they attend a school that also serves students from more advantaged socio-economic backgrounds… Furthermore, the relationship between socio-economic background and student performance in literacy is stronger in schools with a student population primarily from poorer socio-economic backgrounds.The Effect of Literacy on Immigrant Earnings
http://www.statcan.ca/Daily/English/040907/d040907b.htm
Average literacy and numeracy of immigrants are significantly below the averages of non-immigrants with equivalent educational credentials and other observable characteristics… While literacy deficiencies among immigrants appear to have an important impact on differentials in earnings, they do not explain much of the impact of low returns to foreign experience for the highly educated…Inequalities in literacy skills among youth in Canada and the United States
http://www.statcan.ca/Daily/English/990922/d990922c.htm
Canadian and American youth do not meet the literacy standards set by most of their European counterparts… recent immigrant youth scored considerably lower on the literacy tests than those who were born in Canada. However, the inequality in skill levels declined as the number of years spent in the country increased. For young immigrants who had been in the country for more than 10 years, regardless of mother tongue, the differences between their literacy scores and those of non-immigrant youth were virtually non-existent in Canada and accounted for a difference of less than six months' schooling in the United States… (1989, 1994 data)Literacy skills among Canada's immigrant population
http://www.statcan.ca/english/freepub/81-004-XIE/2005005/impop.htm#e
In 2003, one in ten immigrants spoke English or French as their mother tongue, compared to almost one in three in 1980... Immigrants aged 16 to 65 performed significantly below the average for the Canadian- born population... 34% of recent female immigrants scored at Level 1 (the lowest level) in prose literacy; this compares to 9% for Canadian-born females. 28% of recent male immigrants performed at Level 1 literacy, a proportion more than double that of Canadian-born men. About 9% of recent immigrant males compared to 19% of Canadian-born men scored at the highest Levels 4/5. At Level 1 proficiency, 59 % of the Canadian-born, 46 % of established immigrants and 26 % of recent immigrants had less than high school education.12M Canadians struggle with basic literacy
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20051109/canada_poll_/20051109?hub=Canada
Factors, which may attribute for the findings: a decline in literacy proficiency as people get older; and although immigrants are better educated than in the past, they're more likely to come from countries where neither French nor English are mainstream language… What makes the 2003 Statistics Canada report especially troubling is its finding that two per cent of university graduates were at a Level 1 and 2 grade.Immigration boosts Canada's illiteracy rate
http://www.nald.ca/fulltext/brokword/page22.htm
Immigration accounts for about one million of Canada's 4.5 million adult functional illiterates… But the grown-up children of these immigrants, born in Canada, score higher in literacy than longer-established Canadians… In addition, the three-million-plus immigrants now living in Canada barely nudge the national illiteracy level upwards, from 22 per cent for native-born residents by themselves to 24 per cent overall… Information strongly suggests the illiteracy rate has risen sharply among immigrants since 1980.Canada's illiteracy rate is enough to make you sick
http://www.cllrnet.ca/index.php?fa=News.showNewsStory&news_id=136
About 22 per cent of the population falls into the lowest level of literacy -- meaning they are unable to, for example, look at a bottle of medicine and determine the correct amount to give a child. Another 26 per cent can read but they can only deal with information that is simple, clearly laid out and in familiar contexts. In a so-called knowledge economy, this is inadequate, and frightening. Globe and Mail, Sep 16, 2004Illiteracy: Exploring the Personal and Social Costs in Canada
http://www.abc-canada.org
The reading skills of 16 % of Canadian adults are too limited to allow them to deal with the majority of written material encountered in everyday life… More than one quarter of those who have completed a community college program are at the lower levels of literacy... In preparing students to enter the world of work as soon as possible after graduation, the shift in many institutions is toward teaching specific techniques and career skills. By examining the level of proficiency in English reading and comprehension among graduates of post-secondary institutions, it is apparent that those responsible for educational programs must believe that students are receiving sufficient training in reading, writing, and numeracy skills.Adult Illiteracy in Canada - a Challenge
http://www.nald.ca/fulltext/athomas/aduill/aduill.pdf
This publication addresses issues facing a substantial number of Canadians, the illiterate and the seriously-undereducated. 5.5% of Canadian adults have less than Grade 5 schooling and as high as 28.4% of Canadian adults have less than Grade 9; an educational attainment well below the requirements of our society (1983).English Language Ability of Recent Immigrants (BC)
http://www.bcstats.gov.bc.ca/pubs/immig/imm022sf.pdf
The majority of immigrants having no English language ability upon arrival were in the Family Class. This was mainly due to the fact that a high percentage of immigrants are admitted under the Family Class and that English language ability of immigrants in this category was not one of the criteria for their admissibility. However, in relative terms, immigrants in the Entrepreneur Class and Investor Class were more likely to lack English language skills... While immigrants in this category were admitted based on a selection system in which English language proficiency is one of the criteria, only the principal applicants in the family was subjected to the assessment. A high proportion of immigrants in these classes came as a family with middle-aged parents and teenaged children... Immigrants in the Independent Class were the least likely to have no English language ability as they were skilled worker immigrants who were selected and admitted under a points system... Over the study period, immigrants who reported having no English language ability on arrival were 55 % female and 45 % male... Female immigrants were relatively more likely to be accompanying spouses or children.Canada’s ethnocultural portrait: The changing mosaic
http://www12.statcan.ca/english/census01/products/analytic/companion/etoimm/canada.cfm#
immigrants_speak_nonofficial_language_home
Of the 1990s immigrants who spoke a non-official language, about one-third reported Chinese as the most common language spoken at home in 2001. Punjabi, 7% was the second, and Arabic, 5% was the third most common language spoken at home. In terms of the major source countries of the 1990s immigrants, those born in the People’s Republic of China were the most likely to report speaking a non-official language at home (88%) as well as being unable to conduct a conversation in an official language (29%). Immigrants from India (15%) and Taiwan (13%) had the next highest proportions of those unable to converse in either official language.Class Struggles: Public Education and the New Canadian
http://www.atkinsonfoundation.ca/files/Duffy_web.pdf
ESL learners are consistently over-represented in dropout statistics, failure and enrolment in non-academic track programs in both Canada and the United States”… “It would seem that 20 years of program development and research into best practices has done little to alter the pernicious effects of chronic underfunding of these programs. An entire generation of ESL learners has passed through our school system who may never come to realize their potential.”… What makes the situation more maddening, is that Canada has successfully structured its immigration system to draw the best and brightest from other countries, yet it seems willing to squander both their talent and that of their children… In one Calgary high school the dropout rate for ESL learners is 74 % vs. 30 % for the general population of high-school students.Education and Immigrant Youth
http://integration-net.cic.gc.ca/inet/english/vsi-isb/conference2/session/0g.htm
Many school dropouts are ESL students… Language barriers, isolation, self-esteem, difficulty of balancing the two cultures of home and school… Many ESL youth cannot get the credits they need for a high school diploma before turning 19… School systems need staff training and professional development for school personnel and the community at large to deal effectively with the needs of immigrant youth and to create an environment that is both inclusive and accessible.Movement for Canadian Literacy
http://www.literacy.ca/public/litca/archive.htm
National non-profit organization representing literacy coalitions, organizations and individuals from every province and territory. Our mission is to be a national voice for literacy for every Canadian through networking, research, government liaison, learner development, communication, collaboration and building the capacity to support the people and organizations involved with adult literacy education.Leader debate
http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/
Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1160949010072&call_pageid=
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Kennedy and Dion were in opposite but parallel positions at this debate as they were at the last debate in Quebec City in September. The issue of language is the biggest electoral obstacle for both men: Kennedy's French and Dion's English. Kennedy shone more at this debate, while Dion's English, like Kennedy's French in Quebec, became hard to comprehend when subjects got complicated. The Star, October 2006