Mercifully, the U.S. presidential candidates seem blissfully unaware of issues such as international literacy, math-test scores and science-assessment results. They devote their intellectual efforts instead to lacerating the physical appearance of their opponents and their families.
Life expectancy as an indicator of the general health of the population, infant mortality rates and export statistics have also been set aside in favour of personal insults in the tiresome circus of selecting the next “leader of the free world.”
Come to think of it, we did not hear much about those topics during the recent federal election here, either.
An observer might wonder if the U.S. has an education system at all and if so, why it plays no part whatsoever in the political-party hoopla featured 24/7 on news channels.
Standardized testing and the “common core curriculum” never rate a mention by the candidates or their frothing supporters — and maybe, given the flavour of rest of the rhetoric, that’s a good thing.
Clearly, U.S. results on international assessments don’t have the same capacity to invoke the fear and uncertainty that are aroused by talk of roving bands of Muslim extremists or rapacious Mexicans. Politicians seem to believe that only dread and apprehension, not intelligent analysis of the facts, will send electors fretfully to their polling stations.
“That’s the U.S.,” you say. “We know about them and their hillbilly disregard of literacy — Canada is different.”
Well, not really, when it comes to adult literacy.
According to a 2013 International Literacy Survey, a collaborative effort by 20 governments, there is much work to be done on literacy in Canada.
It’s important to note that Canada places above the international average when the literacy scores of its immigrant and non-immigrant populations are considered separately.
The Canadian Literacy and Learning Network says 42 per cent of Canadian adults between the ages of 16 and 65 have low literacy skills. That statistic covers a lot of ground when it comes to defining literacy.
Included is “prose literacy”: the ability to understand and use information from texts such as editorials, news stories, poems and fiction.
Then there is “document literacy”: the ability to locate and use information from documents such as job applications, payroll forms, transportation schedules, maps, tables and graphs.
Also included is “quantitative literacy”: the ability to perform arithmetic functions such as balancing a chequebook, calculating a tip or completing an order form.
Moreover, the network further says 55 per cent of working-age adults in Canada are estimated to have less-than-adequate health literacy. Health literacy includes being able to interpret instructions on a pill bottle.
Impoverished adults lack the literacy skills needed to get into job-training programs, and would need literacy upgrading before they could expect to succeed in those programs.
Now here’s the part that should galvanize the interest of Canadian politicians. A one per cent increase in the national literacy rate would generate $18 billion in economic growth annually. That is according to the Canadian report called Building Our Competencies: Canadian Results of the International Adult Literacy Skills Survey, released in 2005.
Investment in literacy programs, according to the same report, has a 241 per cent return on investment.
But news about Canadian literacy is not all doom and gloom. A new report, Science Culture: Where Canada Stands by the Canadian Council of Academies, found that 42 per cent of Canadians have a basic level of scientific literacy necessary to understand media reports about science, putting Canada first among 35 countries with similar available data.
That might seem contradictory to the literacy-network stats, but apparently 93 per cent of Canadians report being interested in new scientific discoveries and technological developments.
And here is where interest in science might continue to play a part in Canada’s political future: Canada’s population has the lowest level of reservations about science among 17 countries.
Given a choice between belief based on science and faith-based belief, Canadians think it is important to know more about the impact of science on our daily lives.
Another statistic some U.S. presidential aspirants might note: 51 per cent of Canadians with degrees in science, technology, engineering or math are immigrants to our country.
Geoff Johnson is a retired superintendent of schools.
