Directorates
·	Director General's Office
·	Data Development
·	Strategic Evaluations
·	Partnership and Continuous Evaluations
Publications
·	Evaluation Reports
·	Evaluation Briefs
·	Labour Market Development Agreement Series
·	Lessons Learned Series
·	Evaluation Tool Kit Series
·	Evaluation Forum Newsletter
·	From Theory To Practice

The Canada Education Savings Grant (CESG) Program was introduced in 1998 to encourage Canadians to save for the post-secondary education (PSE) of children. The program provides a grant of 20 percent on the first $2,000 of annual contributions to Registered Education Savings Plan (RESPs) for children up to the age of 17. The CESG is administered by the Learning and Literacy Directorate (LLD) of Human Resources Development Canada (HRDC).

Over the first four years of the program (1998/99 to 2001/02), close to $1 billion was paid out in grants, with a total of $318 million being paid out in 2000/01.

The formative evaluation of the CESG was conducted between January and October 2002.

This report on the formative evaluation includes the following:

• Section 2 presents a description of the CESG Program;
• Section 3 summarizes the evaluation issues and the methods used to conduct the evaluation;
• Section 4 presents the findings for issues of program relevance;
• Section 5 provides a profile of subscribers, examines the characteristics of their plans and beneficiaries, and takes a look at the level of grants provided under the CESG;
• Section 6 examines issues of program design and delivery;
• Section 7 considers the early signs of program impacts; and
• Section 8 provides a summary of the main conclusions and the areas identified for improvement.