President and CEO

Message from the President and CEO

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As you may have heard, the Government of Canada has decided to end its funding of CCL. Our present agreement will expire on March 31.

This will necessitate a dramatic scaling down at CCL. However, we are determined to fulfil our current commitments, and identify new ways to serve Canadians, albeit with more modest means. I believe that it is important to maintain the momentum generated by CCL and, over the next few weeks, we will be considering how best to continue.

Before we do that, perhaps we can be forgiven for pausing, to look back at the road we’ve travelled. 

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 is 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. 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 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 20 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 in which we all have a stake. 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.

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.

This is why we believe that we must continue to work on the mission in which we all believe so deeply.

Yes, our future is cloudy. We are optimistic, but not unrealistic about the difficulties we now face.

We are sustained by the character of the company we keep. Each and every staff member at CCL has made a significant contribution to our success. Their knowledge, enthusiasm and commitment to quality have consistently inspired me. These are the qualities which will allow us to move forward.

The organizations and individuals we worked with outside CCL shared our vision. They showed a passion for excellence, a commitment to honesty and transparency, and a devotion to progress. We are confident that CCL’s partners will actively engage with us now to develop new relationships.

I cannot predict what will happen after March 31. However, I can make a pledge to everyone who cares about CCL and lifelong learning.

We will continue to pursue our vision. Our search for smart, practical, focused ideas that are right for individual learners, families, communities and all of Canada, will not end. It will endure.

 

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