President and CEO

CCL and the Importance of Learning

Resources

In 2004, Canada saw that it had some catching up to do. Canadians were falling behind the rest of the world in some crucial areas. Innovation. Creativity. Skills development. Learning.

There was no debate about what we had to do to stop the decline, and begin to improve. We had to figure out what works in education and learning, from early childhood to post-secondary schooling, from job training through adult literacy improvement, and we had to monitor our progress so that we were certain we were always on the right path.

That’s why the Canadian Council on Learning (CCL) was created.

By any measure, CCL has a proud record of accomplishment.

  • Our Composite Learning Index, the first of its kind anywhere in the world, measures learning conditions, not only in the country as a whole, but in almost 5,000 individual communities. And it shows that when you make learning conditions better, you inevitably make economic and social standards better. Europeans have told us they have been “inspired” by the Index, and are now working to produce a version for themselves.Our annual report on the state of learning expands the boundaries of what learning is. It shows that it is not and should not be confined to formal schooling, and that it does not and should not ever end.
  • Our annual report on the state of learning expands the boundaries of what learning is. It shows that it is not and should not be confined to formal schooling, and that it does not and should not ever end.
  • Our annual report on post-secondary education identifies the most important challenges facing Canada’s universities and colleges. It also proposes creative ways to confront those challenges.
  • Our report on the future of adult literacy shattered the country’s complacency by projecting the number of insufficiently literate adults will not diminish, but will grow over the next twenty years.
  • Our partnership with Aboriginal organizations across Canada has developed three Aboriginal learning models, and created groundbreaking methods to assess learning among all indigenous people.

CCL has been obsessed with making sure our work was based in the real world. We tackled subjects that every Canadian understands and has a stake in. Things like how much homework is enough, but not too much. How many students should there be in a classroom? Does it make sense to allow for periods of free-play for children in school? What’s the state of e-learning in Canada? How do different groups of immigrants to Canada learn differently?

Asking the questions was important. Answering them was even more important. And that’s what CCL did. We didn’t just raise problem after problem. We found solutions, offered out-of-the-box thinking, set down guidelines to success. All of it freely available to all Canadians at our website. If anything here has piqued your interest, you should spend a few minutes at www.ccl-cca.ca/ccl. You’ll see careful and caring research.

You will also see so many more issues CCL has handled. Not for the sake of academic debates, but to provide the best possible information on which we can make decisions for our future. So much is riding on those decisions being right.

It’s rare to find a statement with which all Canadians can agree. But here’s one. Our prosperity is entirely dependent on how well we develop skills for the global knowledge-based economy. That was true when CCL was founded in 2004. It is true today in 2010.

Our work is not done. Unfortunately though, the government of Canada has decided to end our funding. That will obviously necessitate a dramatic scaling down at CCL. But we are determined to fulfill the obligations we have already assumed, and will endeavour to find new ways to serve Canadians, albeit with more modest means.

Of course we wish a different decision had been made by the government. It is impossible to believe that Canadians are no longer interested in exploring the keys to a more prosperous future. Or that they are willing to allow the momentum generated by CCL to come to a dead stop. Surely there is an evident wisdom in using our significant body of accumulated knowledge to propel us toward even more discovery and innovation in the field.

The Canadian Council on Learning has always kept its eye on the prize. It has been tireless in searching for smart, practical, focused ideas that were right for individual learners, families, communities, and the country as a whole. CCL has sparked the imaginations of thousands of Canadians by shining a steady light on learning. The dream of a better Canada, based on a citizenry fully committed to life-long learning, must endure.

 

Top Top / Haut