CBC News Indepth: Education

INDEPTH: EDUCATION
Education at a glance: OECD reports
CBC News Online | September 15, 2004

Canadians rank among the best educated people in the world, but funding for elementary and high schools has plunged over the past decade, says a report from the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development released in September of 2004.

External link: Education at a Glance: 2004 OECD report

The report on education is based on 2002 and 2001 statistics provided by its 30 member countries.

Here are some of its main findings:

Spending

Canada significantly curtailed spending to elementary and high schools during the past decade. It now ranks 19th in the OECD, behind countries such as the United States, Mexico and Portugal.
The amount – 3.4 per cent of the country's gross domestic product – falls below the OECD average of 3.8 per cent. The report did not say how much money was spent per student.
It's a different story when it comes to spending on college and university education. Canada shells out 2.5 per cent of its GDP, surpassed by only South Korea and the United States (both at 2.7 per cent). That's much higher than the OECD average of 1.8 per cent.

Education levels

More Canadians have post-secondary education than any other industrialized country. The report found 43 per cent of those aged 25 to 64 have been to college or university, almost double the OECD average of 23 per cent.
The United States follows, at 38 per cent.
83 per cent of Canadians have graduated from high school, compared to the OECD average of 65 per cent.

Education and employment

Canadians with higher education found it easier to find work, as the unemployment rate for those with post-secondary education slipped to 4.4 per cent. In 1995, it was 5.3 per cent.
Canada still lags behind some OECD countries when it comes to the gender gap. For example, Canadian women aged 30 to 44 who have some post-secondary education earn, on average, 59 per cent of what their male counterparts take home. The OECD average is closer to two-thirds.
Women in the same category in the U.S. earn 61 per cent, while in Hungary, they come closest to equality with 84 per cent. They're worst off in Britain and Switzerland, where they take home only 50 per cent.

Education at a Glance: 2003 OECD report

The previous year's report, in 2003, used statistics from 2001 to compare academic performance, funding, staffing levels, literacy and overall quality of primary, secondary and post-secondary education systems.

Its findings include:

Literacy

Canadian 15-year-olds ranked second (behind Finland) in reading literacy. Of that group, Canadian females performed 30 per cent better than Canadian males. Broken down by province, Alberta fared the best, followed by Quebec, while New Brunswick came in last.
Canadian 15-year-olds were among the top six countries in math and science literacy (Japan and South Korea came out on top). Of that group, Canadian males performed 10 per cent better than Canadian females.

Class size

Along with Mexico and Japan, Canada has some of the largest classes of the OECD member countries.
Canada's teacher-to-student ratio is 80 to 1,000 for primary and secondary levels (France, Hungary, Iceland and Italy had the best ratios with 119 teachers for every 1,000 students).

Post-secondary

60 per cent of post-secondary graduates in Canada are female.
In Canada, post-secondary education has a greater effect on a female's salary than on a male's.
Canada has the highest percentage of students attending post-secondary school (an increase of 10 per cent compared with 12 years ago).

There has been a 23 per cent increase in the number of women attending post-secondary school for the same period.

School Quality

There is less variation in the quality of Canada's schools than the OECD average. For one thing, this means there is little variation between the quality of Canada's private and public schools.

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