Another failing grade for Manitoba’s education system

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This article was published 06/12/2016 (3232 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The good news? Canadian kids are among the best students in the world.

The bad news? Manitoba students are among the worst in Canada.

On Tuesday, a report from the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development’s Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) delivered another blow to Manitoba’s education system.

Conducted every three years, PISA tested 540,000 randomly selected kids aged 15 in 72 industrialized countries and city-states in science, reading and math. Manitoba’s children ranked eighth in math in Canada, and ninth in both reading and science, rankings that were near identical to 2013 and 2010 results. Manitoba, however, is above the OECD average in reading and science and just below in math, while remaining ahead of several major countries.

Despite the province’s struggles, some extraordinary things in education have been happening elsewhere in Canada.

British Columbia’s children are the world’s best readers. Alberta’s children are second in science globally, followed by B.C. at third and Quebec in fifth. Singapore was first and Japan fourth.

In math, Quebec kids are third globally. Among countries, Canada is No. 1 in reading, fourth in science and sixth in math.

In science, Manitoba’s score of 499 surpassed only Saskatchewan’s 496 — Alberta was at 541, B.C. 539 and Quebec 537.

In reading, Manitoba’s 498 topped Saskatchewan by two, and was far behind B.C.’s score of 536.

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In math, the subject at which the then NDP government threw the most attention and resources since Manitoba’s performance went downhill, Manitoba’s score of 489 edged out Newfoundland and Labrador’s 486 and Saskatchewan’s 484 — Quebec scored 544.

When the OECD applied socioeconomic factors to the science performances, Manitoba’s children in the lowest quarter were last in Canada at 466, while those in the highest socioeconomic quarter moved up to seventh nationally at 533.

Two things have been clear throughout the testing’s history: Manitoba has a higher proportion of kids performing at the lowest level than the rest of Canada, and a smaller percentage achieving at the highest level.

Globally, though, Canada excelled this time around.

Only in Canada, Estonia, Finland, Hong Kong (China), Japan, Macao (China) and Singapore do at least four out of five 15-year-old students master the baseline level of proficiency in science, reading and mathematics," said Angel Gurria, OECD secretary-general.

"Japan, Estonia, Finland and Canada are the four highest-performing OECD countries," said the OECD.

When it comes to providing equity for the lowest socioeconomic families, Canada, Denmark, Estonia, Hong Kong (China) and Macao (China) achieve high levels of performance and equity in education outcomes, Gurria said.

"The data also show that the world is no longer divided between rich and well-educated nations and poor and badly educated ones: the 10 per cent most disadvantaged students in Vietnam compare favourably to the average student in the OECD area. Clearly, all countries and economies have excellent students, but few have enabled all students to excel,” Gurria said.

Despite vows from former NDP education ministers to reverse the performance trend, Manitoba still lags behind other provinces. Since 2010, Manitoba has been either eighth or ninth in the three subjects.

After the PISA results were released in 2013, James Allum said capping of the youngest class sizes should help, as should changes to the math curriculum — requiring children to learn basic arithmetic and times tables before getting near a calculator.

"We’re going to get back to focusing on fundamentals," Allum said. "We need to make sure our kids are having productive days every day.”

The Tories in opposition accused the NDP of throwing billions of dollars at public education without seeing all the provincial kids achieve success, something OECD also commented on in its report.

"Several countries have increased expenditures over the past decade without seeing corresponding improvements in the quality of the learning outcomes measured by PISA," it said.

In the Nov. 21 throne speech, Premier Brian Pallister said the new Conservative government "will focus on the fundamentals of a quality education, and will embark upon the development of a comprehensive long-term literacy and numeracy strategy that will provide Manitoba children with the skills they need to succeed and prosper."

Within Canada, only 9.7 per cent of Manitoba 15-year-olds foresee a career in science and engineering, significantly below other provinces, though Manitoba girls are considerably more likely to try for a career in science than boys. Manitoba children are pretty much middle of the pack at 19.6 per cent hoping for a career in a health profession, but they were second-worst in Canada in having only a vague notion about where they’ll be at age 30.

nick.martin@freepress.mb.ca