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Yesterday the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development released its annual report, Education at a Glance, which compares educational outcomes among 40 countries. How does Canada fare? That is hard to say, because in many areas, Canada is not able to provide the information that other OECD countries collect.
The information gap is greatest with respect to post-secondary education (PSE). Although we spent $34 billion on post-secondary education in 2007, we don’t have the data to assess how well that sector is performing. We can’t conduct the analysis – and neither can the OECD – because Canada can’t supply even basic information, such as the number of students who completed post-secondary education, and how much we spent per student. We can’t assess who is participating in post-secondary education, and who is not getting access. In fact, Canada was unable to furnish more than half of the indicators related to post-secondary education collected by the OECD; 57 of the 96 are missing. Canada ranks lowest among the 40 participating countries in terms of the amount of information about PSE that it was able to provide to the annual survey.
As the Canadian Council on Learning (CCL) documented last year in the first-ever report on the state of post-secondary education across Canada, post-secondary education is critical to Canada’s productivity and social well-being, as well as to the prosperity and quality of life of individual Canadians. In today’s much-touted knowledge economy, skilled and educated people are our country’s greatest resource. By 2013, employers will demand post-secondary degrees for 70 percent of new and existing jobs.
Post-secondary education accounts for 6.5% of overall social spending in Canada. But to assess how effectively that money is being spent, and to measure our performance against other industrialized countries, we have to track the data. In today’s world, workers, capital, students, professionals, even institutions are increasingly mobile. By participating fully in international comparisons such as the OECD report, Canada would be able to learn from other nations and improve our performance in the areas where we are weak. To move ahead, we require information that will help us to address our most pressing needs: to ensure that we have the skills to match labour market needs and the knowledge required to support research and innovation. Only by identifying the barriers to success can we take the steps needed to dismantle them. Post-secondary education is associated with a host of positive outcomes for individuals, ranging from higher earnings to better health and greater community involvement. We require a population that has access to, and engages in, learning throughout their lives, to meet the ever-changing demands of the workplace and of society as a whole.
Canada’s inability to comply with the OECD call for data reconfirms the findings of CCL’s 2006 report on the state of post-secondary education in Canada, which identified two principal differences between the approach Canada takes to PSE and that taken by other countries. First, many other developed countries—whether unitary or federal states, or even multinational entities like the E.U.—have developed robust national systems to enable them to make policy and planning decisions about PSE based on adequate and timely information. Secondly, these countries have developed (or are now developing) national agendas and strategies for PSE. Canada risks falling behind not because our PSE sector is less able, but because the country does not have the necessary tools and mechanisms to maximize efficiencies and benefits.
Better information would result in better decisions by learners, employers, post-secondary educators and institutions, and policy makers. Clearly, other developed countries have recognized the vital importance of post-secondary education to quality of life and prosperity, and make the investments needed to collect a solid foundation of information.
Without immediate action to fill the information gaps, Canada will not be able to make the right decisions and right investments in our post-secondary education sector – a sector vital to our continued productivity and well-being.
Dr. Paul Cappon is president and chief executive officer of the Canadian Council on Learning, a national, independent, non-profit corporation committed to improving learning across the country and across all walks of life.
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