Canadian Council on Learning | Conseil Canadien sur l'Apprentissage

CCL identifies ways to reduce dropout rates in Canada's rural regions

March 2, 2006 Ottawa—In 2004/05, the rural dropout rate was almost double the urban dropout rate in Canada, and in its latest issue of Lessons in Learning, the Canadian Council on Learning looks beyond the numbers to identify how best to close Canada’s rural-urban education gap.

The numbers are stark. Not only is the rural dropout rate higher, an international assessment done in 2003 showed that rural students didn’t perform as well as their urban peers in math, reading and science. In fact, Canada has the worst rural-urban gap of all OECD countries when it comes to levels of education in the workforce. As well, the number of rural adults with some post-secondary education sits below 50%, more than 10 percentage points lower than in urban areas.

“In order to ensure that rural students have the same opportunities and incentives as urban students, Canada must find ways to foster learning and encourage higher levels of education outside of its cities,” said Dr. Paul Cappon, the President and CEO of the Canadian Council on Learning.

What can be done?

The Canadian Council on Learning’s (CCL) study found that a combination of school and economic conditions discourage rural students from completing high school at the same rate as their urban counterparts. Specifically, rural schools find it more difficult to attract and retain qualified teaching staff, particularly in specialized fields. From an economic perspective, lower labour-force growth in rural areas gives rural students less incentive to complete school.

In an article entitled The Rural-urban Education Gap, CCL outlines a series of measures that rural schools and communities can take to encourage more students to complete high school.

“The problem is not simple, but with a collaborative approach involving a number of partners in learning, gains in rural learning can be made,” said Dr. Cappon.

Recommended measures include innovative Internet use in the classroom, new strategies for recruiting and retaining teachers, and increased involvement of community businesses to smooth the transition between work and school.

CCL identifies a number of effective practices, including a program in Newfoundland & Labrador that uses a virtual classroom environment to share teachers across regions in order to provide more specialty courses to students. The teachers benefit from the Internet as well, through a program of e-mentoring. The Rural-urban Education Gap also points to a number of innovative partnerships with local businesses that illustrate how students can use higher levels of learning in the rural setting.

The full Lessons in Learning article is available on the CCL website.

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The Canadian Council on Learning is an independent, not-for-profit corporation funded through an agreement with Human Resources and Social Development Canada. Its mandate is to promote and support evidence-based decisions about learning throughout all stages of life, from early childhood through to the senior years.

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