Reply
Wed 9 Nov, 2005 04:41 pm
from CBC NEWS
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Nearly half of Canadians lack reading skills: report
Last Updated Wed, 09 Nov 2005 13:13:58 EST
CBC News
Nearly half of Canadians aged 16 and over and a good chunk of university graduates fail to meet the basic standards for reading comprehension, suggests a Statistics Canada report on literacy skills.
The 2003 survey released Wednesday tested 23,000 Canadians on their skills in four areas:
Prose literacy – understanding longer reading materials including books, editorials, news stories, brochures and instruction manuals.
Document literacy – understanding shorter reading materials including job applications, payroll forms, maps, tables and charts.
Numeracy – math skills.
Problem-solving, goal-directed thinking problems like event planning.
Among adults aged 16 to 65, about 42 per cent scored below Level 3 in prose literacy, which is considered the threshold needed for coping in society.
(Proficiency was rated on a basis of Level 1 to 5, or lowest to highest.)
But when respondents aged 66 and over were also included, those scoring below Level 3 in prose literacy increased to nearly half (48 per cent), or some 12 million adults aged 16 and over.
The report also found 12 per cent of university graduates were at a Level 1 and 2 grade, with two per cent at Level 1.
"The 12 per cent is still puzzling," Francois Nault, Statistics Canada's director of the centre for education statistics, told CBC News Online.
Nault said more analysis is needed, but he believed the low rates could be attributed to graduates who are now elderly and whose literacy skills have deteriorated.
Yukon residents scored the highest literacy rates in the country, suggests the report.
The results may be due to the fact more of the population is of working age, and more of the workforce is in professional occupations.
The territory is followed by British Columbia, Alberta and Saskatchewan with the highest scores, the report suggests.
On the other end of the scale, residents in Newfoundland and Labrador, New Brunswick and Nunavut had average proficiency scores in all four areas that were significantly below the national average.
Quebec also performed below the national average in both the prose and document-literacy domains, but the province was at the national average for numeracy and problem-solving.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
hbg's comments : it seems that to be a true canadian, readin' , ritin' , rithmatic, are skills best not aquired. listening to some of our politicians, i am under the impression that an "illiteracy" test is required to qualify.
don't know if to cry or laugh ... hbg
I listened to a report about that on the CBC tonight.
It's more than a bit discouraging.
I blame it on those Geese.
How valid are stats like that, really?
Down here in the contiguous 48, of course, everyone is above average.
i'm afraid that those statistics are fairly valid. of course one needs to take into account that many immigrants that came to canada in the 1950's and 1960's worked often in a "closed" environment. many of these immigrants - bricklayers and plasterers, as an example - are well trained tradespeople, but often they only worked with immigrants from their homecountries and did not need to know much english.
recently some universities have complained that new students - who had graduated from highschool - were not able to handle their coursework because of insufficient reading and writing skills. universities have now instituted courses to help those students and bring them up to speed.
on the other hand recent test results from international highschool tests have shown canadian highschool-students to be in the top group (and accordding to german newspaper stories, german students did not fair that well).
i'm sure we'll hear more about it in the next few weeks. hbg
Does this mean that there's some validity to the horrible Newfie stereotype?
These are Politically Incorrect Opinions:
I'm glad that not all the illiterates of the world have migrated to the US.
I suspect that radio and television have made literacy less necessary for survival in the modern world.
I suspect that there are enormous differences between print literacy and media literacy.
Further, having spent 30 years wandering in the fringes of Mr. Noddy's family, a great number of people--earning "good" money" don't consider print literacy particularly important.
i'd agree with noddy. to be a good trades-person - such as bricklayer, plasterer or shoemaker - doesn't require great literary skill, and yet these are honourable and well-paid jobs.
i read in the local newspaper that one of our highschools "has gone back" (!) to start a trades program. very good idea i think; we can't all be pencil-pushers or programmers.
one of the great problems is actually a shortage of skilled trades (as we found out recently, trying to get a plumber). construction companies in toronto, to name just one example, have started to bring in construction teams from argentina since there are not a sufficient number canadian of trades-people available . i understand that in united states, mexican trades people often form the backbone in many construction projects.
what we need is a proper balance in education imo. hbg
Never mind Mexican workers. On high-rise projects, you can't get any steel-workers to go up that high except for crews of Mohawk Indians. They don't even wear safety-harnesses!
Stumble It!
Tweet This
Bookmark on Delicious
Share on Facebook
Share on MySpace