The Canadian Council on Learning recently released the results of a five-year study on Canada’s education system, all the way from preschool to the post-secondary level, including adult learning and Aboriginal learning.

Researchers concluded that Canada has a “Learning Paradox”: there are positive signs with a mainly highly educated population, but also “signs of systemic weakness that, if left unchecked, will inhibit Canada’s capacity to grow and prosper” (p. 6). These weaknesses are throughout the education system.

Some conclusions that are of interest to academic librarians:

• “Nearly half of adults in this country lack the prose-literacy skills needed to cope with the demands of a competitive global economy” (p. 6).
• “Those who most need learning opportunities—such as work-related
  training―are, ironically, the least likely to obtain them” (p. 6).
• “Conventional measurement approaches rarely reflect the specific needs and aspirations of Aboriginal people” (p. 6).
• “Lack of recognition of the integral role of life-wide learning from early childhood through the adult years” (p. 7).
• “An absence of clear objectives, appropriate and responsive lifelong learning policies, as well as national data, measures and benchmarks” (p. 7).
• Canada lags behind other OECD countries in public expenditures on post-secondary education (p. 18).
• A significant number of immigrants have post-secondary education credentials when they enter Canada (43% in 2006) (p. 21).
• Canada lags behind most other countries in science and engineering graduates, who drive innovation and productivity (p. 22).
• “A large proportion (42%) of Canadian adults…have low levels of literacy; they perform below the internationally accepted minimum considered necessary for participation in a knowledge society” (p. 34).
• “Canada has yet to develop a comprehensive plan for fostering a learning society” (p. 35).

A personal aside: I wonder if the researchers considered the number of Canadians who graduate with degrees in other countries and never move back (the “brain drain”). These are people who need better incentives to return in order to advance Canada’s innovation and productivity.

Read the full report and a newspaper article with reactions from other organizations.