Canada’s Illiteracy Crisis
Literacy is becoming a luxury item in Canada.
Socio-economic status and race are two of the strongest determinants for Canadian illiteracy.
Please note that these are not statistics from a developing country. These are Canadian statistics:
- 42 % of Canadians are semi-illiterate.
- For the past 15 years there has been scarcely any improvement in Canada's literacy rate (The National, 05/24/06).
- “Four in 10 high school youth have insufficient reading skills. Two in 10 university graduates, five in 10 adults, and six in 10 immigrants also have insufficient literacy skills… While both levels of government are engaged in literacy programs, there is little evidence that it is working. Canada is losing billions because of illiteracy.” (Toronto Dominion Report – Literacy Matters, 2007).
- “Three provinces, British Columbia, Quebec and Ontario have, in total, 7 million of the 9 million people with low literacy.” (Canadian Council on Learning. State of Learning in Canada: No Time for Complacency. 2007)
- In one small east-end Toronto school where students are mostly poor, only 8% of children passed the grade 10 literacy test. Children from 4 extremely affluent schools scored in the vicinity of 90% (NOW Magazine, March 22, 2001).
- “22 per cent of university graduates do not achieve adequate scores on prose literacy …between 11 and 14 per cent of Canadian- born university graduates aged 26 to 55 have inadequate prose literacy.” (TD Bank. Literacy Matters: A Call for Action . 2007)
- “With health-literacy skills that are considered to be at level 2 and below (IALSS definition), 60% of adult Canadians lack the capacity to obtain, understand and act upon health information and services and to make appropriate health decisions on their own.” (Canadian Council on Learning Health Literacy in Canada. 2007)
“The Canadian economy could enjoy a $32-billion boost if literacy rates were improved by only one per cent,” says Craig Alexander, deputy chief economist of TD Bank Financial Group (2007).