The education system’s failing report card
Canada received a devastating report card last month, showing how academic test scores are collapsing and the country’s education system is failing students.
Canadian 15-year-olds’ performance on science, math and reading, which has been dropping for two decades, reached new lows on the OECD’s Program for International Student Assessment (PISA).
The chart below shows that since 2006, Canada has declined by 37 points in reading, 42 points in math, and 24 points in science. The drop is equivalent to one to two years of lost learning for the average student.
Other tests, such as the international TIMSSmathematics assessment, and Ontario’s EQAO tests in math, reading and writing, also show Canadian students are struggling to master the basics.
Canadians shouldn’t be reassured by the fact that the country remains a relatively strong performer globally,tied for 12th in reading, and ranking 11th in math and ninth in science out of the 91 countries and economies evaluated on PISA. In the year 2000, Canada was second in reading, sixth in math and fifth in science out of the 32 countries measured that year.
Paul W. Bennett, director of the Schoolhouse Institute and a senior fellow at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute, says that between 2015 and 2025, Canada’s deterioration was around 8 to 9 points worse than the average OECD decline in each subject.
