Archive for the ‘Education’ Category
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Ontario’s PSE record is world class
Wednesday, December 7th, 2011
Dec. 7, 2011
Ontario’s attainment rate for higher education has risen from 44 per cent in 1999 to a 56 per cent in 2009… Ontario’s – and Canada’s – higher attainment rates are mostly owing to the number of people who have completed college… But Ontario’s 28 per cent university attainment is also higher than the OECD’s 21 per cent average… the rate at which first-time university students are graduating is four percentage points higher in Ontario than the OECD. The OECD graduation rate for those with advanced research degrees (typically doctorates), however, is 1.5 per cent, compared to 1.2 per cent in Ontario.
Tags: globalization, participation, standard of living, youth
Posted in Education Debates | 1 Comment »
Attawapiskat exposes urgent need for native education reforms
Wednesday, November 30th, 2011
Nov. 30, 2011
Native education in Canada is simply a string of disasters. There’s no need here to recite again the ills of the residential schools system; its replacement – on-reserve schools funded by Ottawa and run by local band councils – haven’t done much better… But… [In NS and BC] native school boards are pooling resources, supervising on-reserve schools and overseeing a curriculum that meets provincial standards while also emphasizing native languages, culture and history.
Tags: crime prevention, disabilities, Indigenous, poverty, rights, standard of living, youth
Posted in Education Debates | 1 Comment »
Legal Education Reform
Sunday, November 27th, 2011
November 25, 2011
Instead of a curriculum taught largely through professors’ grilling of students about appellate cases, some schools are offering more apprentice-style learning in legal clinics and more courses that train students for their multiple future roles as advocates and counselors, negotiators and deal-shapers, and problem-solvers… Some are exploring ways to reduce tuitions and make themselves more sustainable. Potential business models include legal degrees based on two years of classes, followed by third-year apprenticeship programs.
Tags: participation, rights, standard of living
Posted in Education Policy Context | No Comments »
A winter of aboriginal agony must lead to action
Friday, November 25th, 2011
Nov 24 2011
Wednesday, more than two dozen aboriginal communities in Manitoba and Northern Ontario filed a multimillion dollar lawsuit accusing the federal government of underfunding aboriginal education. “At some point you have to say enough is enough, too many of our children are not reaching their potential,” said Grand Chief Diane Kelly, who represents the 28 Anishinaabe bands that filed the suit… The enormity of the problems with First Nations across this country is gaining widespread national attention. It’s time, says Shawn Atleo, the national chief of the Assembly of First Nations, to stop lurching from crisis to crisis.
Tags: budget, featured, Indigenous, poverty, rights, standard of living
Posted in Education Delivery System | 5 Comments »
Ottawa needs to step up to PSE plate, too
Thursday, November 24th, 2011
November 23, 2011
Since the late 1990s, full-time enrolment at colleges and universities has increased 25 per cent. Enrolment in graduate studies soared 42 per cent between 1998 and 2008. But federal funding for postsecondary education has decreased dramatically since the late-1970s. The Canada Social Transfer gives money to the provinces but does not require them to use federal postsecondary funding for postsecondary purposes… The CFS’s central recommendation is for the federal government to bring in a Post-Secondary Education Act modeled after the Canada Health Act.
Tags: budget, participation, youth
Posted in Education Policy Context | No Comments »
Start school at 2, study urges
Tuesday, November 22nd, 2011
Nov 22 2011
Early Years 3 is the second update of Mustard and McCain’s groundbreaking 1999 Early Years Study. The first update was in 2007… Provinces have embraced the overwhelming social, economic and scientific evidence favouring investments in early-childhood education and are steaming ahead with plans and programs, says the report. McCain said “the message echoes from one coast to the other,” adding that “if the federal government jumped on board, Canada would be ready to explode in this area and be a model for the world, certainly for North America.”
Tags: standard of living
Posted in Education Delivery System | No Comments »
Grim state of native education comes as a surprise to no one
Friday, November 18th, 2011
Nov. 18, 2011
There are places in Canada, specifically Nova Scotia and to a lesser extent British Columbia, where native schools are working and where graduation rates are climbing. The common denominator seems to be Indian control of Indian education – not just within individual schools but also in terms of the administrative functions normally handled by school boards… There is an urgent need to fix what’s wrong with native education – not just for the children who are being left behind but also for the rest of Canada, which will have to pay the enormous price incurred by doing nothing.
Tags: budget, participation, rights, tax
Posted in Education Delivery System | No Comments »
No quick fix for universities
Wednesday, November 16th, 2011
Nov 14 2011
The amount of per-student funding provided to universities by the government of Ontario has declined by 25 per cent since 1990, adjusted for inflation. Since 2001, enrolment has increased by 60 per cent… Our student-to-faculty ratio is now 27-to-1, the worst in Canada. In 1990, it was 18-to-1. So let’s be clear: the problem is not that faculty are not teaching enough.
Tags: budget, ideology, participation, youth
Posted in Education Delivery System | 1 Comment »
Setting education priorities
Sunday, November 6th, 2011
Nov 04 2011
The most intractable educational challenge is not really an educational issue at all: it is the enduring problem in Ontario (and Canada) of poverty. Schools and teachers cannot resolve this deep social problem (they have no control over unemployment, low wages and inadequate housing)… The impact of a caring, perceptive mentor on the life of a struggling student (whether poor or middle class) can be immense and the government should support this practice across the province… [and] encourage every creative attempt to deepen student “engagement” in elementary and secondary classrooms.
Tags: ideology, poverty, standard of living
Posted in Education Policy Context | No Comments »
IQ level changes over the years: study
Monday, October 24th, 2011
Oct. 20, 2011
a new study suggests that IQ levels may actually change over time – rising in some and falling in others… It’s possible the change in scores is due to some kids being early or late bloomers… But it is also possible that education played a role in altering IQ… “We have to be careful not to write off poorer performers at an early stage when, in fact, their IQ may improve significantly given a few more years.”
Tags: standard of living, youth
Posted in Education Debates | 1 Comment »
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