Education

L'éducation

New from
:

News Release
May 17, 2010
A new report says children not living with their parents are denied financial benefits that other children get. Not so Easy to Navigate, a report written by social policy experts John Stapleton and Anne Tweddle for the Laidlaw Foundation, reveals that the most vulnerable children in Ontario - those living in state care - don’t benefit from federal programs like the Canada Learning Bond and Canada Education Savings Grant the same way that children living with their families do.

Complete report:

(PDF - 511K, 40 pages)
By John Stapleton & Anne Tweddle
Toronto
May 2010
Young people who have been taken into state care report that the most difficult issue they faced when leaving care was the lack of emotional, financial, and educational support. This paper describes the major financial supports currently available in Ontario and proposes ways to improve the financial and educational well-being of youth once they leave care.

Two pamphlets by the same authors
released with the above report:

* (PDF - 291K, 14 pages)
May 2010
Do you know a child who is in the care of a Children’s Aid Society?
Are you concerned about their financial and educational future?
This fact sheet tells you about financial benefits from the government for children in Ontario, with special emphasis on programs that build savings for a child in care. It also explains some of the changes that happen to benefits when a child goes into care.

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March 2010
Collect child benefits of up to $8,400 and more every year!

There are four things you should do when you give birth
in order to obtain the benefits that you are entitled to:

1. Go to Service Ontario to get a birth certificate and a Social Insurance Number for your child.
2. Apply for Canada Child Tax Benefits (CCTB).
3. Fill out a tax return and send it in.
4. Go to any bank and setup a Registered Education Savings Plan (RESP)
- includes links to online resources

Source:

The Laidlaw Foundation promotes positive youth development through inclusive youth engagement in the arts, environment and in community.

Related earlier report
from The Laidlaw Foundation:

(PDF file - 242K, 31 pages)
September 2005
By Anne Tweddle
Source:
(they produced the report)
(they funded the report)

[ - click "Resources" in the left margin for links to all Laidlaw Foundation reports by theme.]

Related links from
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The Canada Learning Bond (CLB) is a grant offered by the Government of Canada to help parents, friends, and family members save early for the post-secondary education of children in modest-income families. (...) The Government of Canada will make a one-time payment of $500 into the RESP of children who qualify for the Canada Learning Bond and a $100 deposit each subsequent year the child’s primary caregiver receives the , to a maximum of $2,000. Canlearn.ca offers more information regarding the amount of CLB the child could receive.

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When you, as a parent, friend or family member, open a on behalf of a child and apply for the Canada Education Savings Grant (CESG), the Government of Canada will deposit a percentage of your own contribution directly into the RESP. To date, more than three million children have benefited from the Canada Education Savings Grant.

Related link:

- John Stapleton's website

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From :

May 17, 2010
An Ontario youth foundation is calling on Ottawa to set up education savings accounts for the 18,000 Ontario children in state care. The Laidlaw Foundation has released a new report that suggests Ontario children living in foster care don't benefit from federal programs like the Canada Learning Bond and the Canada Education Savings Grant the same way that children living with their families do.

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From :

By Laurie Monsebraaten
May 17, 2010
Ontario should press Ottawa to give children in foster care the same educational support as children who live with their families. A report being released Monday says it would cost the federal government about $8 million a year to set up educational savings accounts for the approximately 18,000 Ontario children in state care. “Parents with children living at home often use their federal child benefits to open Registered Education Savings Plans for their children,” said social policy expert John Stapleton, co-author of report by the Laidlaw Foundation. The investments trigger the $2,000 federal learning bond and the education savings grant, which matches parental contributions to a maximum of $7,200. (...) Ontario should press for a change in federal policy so that all children in care can have access to the federal money to use toward a post-secondary education, says the report. The province should also extend financial support to youth in care to age 25 says the report entitled Not So Easy to Navigate.
Source:

Virginia Rowden
May 21, 2010
This is a story told in numbers. There are nearly 4,700 young people — aged 16 to 20 — in the care of Children’s Aid Societies in Ontario. Fewer than 600 are enrolled in college, trade schools or university — less than 13 per cent compared with 60 per cent of young people who have grown up with their own families
[ Virginia Rowden is director, social policy, and mentor for the YouthCAN program, . ]

May 23, 2010
Editorial
(...) By [Ontario] provincial law, children in the care of the state must move out of their foster or group homes before their 18th birthday, whether they have finished high school or not. They are given financial assistance to live on their own, but that is cut off at 21, regardless of their circumstances. (...) Last week, a report by the Laidlaw Foundation urged Ottawa to establish registered education savings plans (RESPs) for children in foster care, similar to those that parents set up for their own children. The report rightly identifies the transforming effect that making college financially possible could have on Crown wards. (...) Children's aid agencies have long urged the province to let children stay in their foster or group homes until they are 21. The Laidlaw Foundation's report argues that financial assistance should be extended to 25. Both measures would provide a more supportive and gradual transition into adulthood – similar to what most children get from their parents.

Source:

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The U.S. Perspective
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Recent release from
:

News Release
May 12, 2010
(LosAngeles) - California is creating homeless adults by failing to ensure that youth in foster care are given the support to live independently as adults and by ending state support abruptly, said in a new report. Human Rights Watch said that the state should provide financial support, connections with adults, shelter, and other safety nets for young people as they make the transition towards independence.

The 70-page report, (PDF - 1.3MB), documents the struggles of foster care youth who become homeless after turning 18, or "aging out" of the state's care, without sufficient preparation or support for adulthood. California's foster care system serves 65,000 children and youth, far more than any other single state. Of the 4,000 who age out of the system each year, research suggests, 20 per cent or more become homeless.

Source:

Human Rights Watch is one of the world’s leading independent organizations dedicated to defending and protecting human rights. By focusing international attention where human rights are violated, we give voice to the oppressed and hold oppressors accountable for their crimes.

From :

May 20, 2010

Summary
Just over 5.1 million students were enrolled in publicly funded elementary and secondary schools in Canada during the academic year 2007/2008, down 0.9% from the previous year. This was the lowest level since 1998/1999 when data for the Elementary-Secondary Education Statistics Project were first collected. Enrolment peaked at nearly 5.4 million students in 2001/2002. Since then, it has declined in every year, as larger cohorts of graduating students were replaced by smaller cohorts of grade 1 students.

by Riley Brockington
Indicators include : * Enrolments * Graduates * Graduation rates * Educators * Student-educator ratio * Total expenditures * Total expenditures per student * Average remuneration of educators
- includes nine charts on the above topics

Related subjects

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April 29, 2010

April 2010
The April 2010 issue of Education Matters: Insights on Education, Learning and Training in Canada contains two articles:

1. takes stock of changes that have taken place over time in the occupations held by women in the labour market and in the fields of study they are choosing at the postsecondary level.

2. summarizes new research that points to the need to take a broad perspective on factors affecting participation in postsecondary education, taking into account the roles of factors such as aspirations, motivations, engagement with school, study habits, and high school outcomes.

Also in this issue of Education Matters:

April 2010
- fact sheet, entitled "Interrupting High School and Returning to Education," part of the Pan-Canadian Education Indicators Program.

[ - more free education-related articles]

April 20, 2010
(CTF News Service – Ottawa) Teacher leaders from across the country are adding their voices to the national call for action to end child poverty when they meet with Parliamentarians today as part of the Canadian Teachers’ Federation’s (CTF) annual Hill Day.

“Our task is to remind federal politicians that social issues are just as important as economic ones,” explains CTF President Mary-Lou Donnelly. “It is shameful that child poverty is a tragic fact of life in a nation as wealthy as ours. Among the most vulnerable groups affected by child poverty are Aboriginal children, children of new immigrants and children with disabilities.

The report card:

(PDF - 269K, 2 pages)

Resources:

Assembly of First Nations

Campaign 2000

Canada Without Poverty

Education International

Global Campaign for Education

Make Poverty History

National Alliance for Children and Youth

Save the Children Canada / Aide à l’enfance Canada

UNICEF / UNICEF

Related link:

(PDF - 291K, 8 pages)
Background Material for
Parliamentarians and Staff
- April 20, 2010
The Canadian Teachers’ Federation urges all Parliamentarians to support a coordinated effort to reduce and eliminate child poverty in Canada.
This coordinated effort should be focussed along three main areas of action:
• Family Income
• Housing
• Educational Opportunity

Source:

The Canadian Teachers’ Federation (CTF) speaks for approximately 200,000 teachers in Canada as their national voice on education and related social issues.

This series of five commentaries on post-secondary education derives from an in-depth study entitled (PDF - K, 72 pages) published by the Caledon Institute in September 2009. Each commentary deals with a core theme linked to easing access to post-secondary education for low-income students, including welfare recipients.
Sherri Torjman prepared all four reports, and each report is a small PDF file two or three pages in length dated March 2010.

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Selected content from
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February 25, 2010

The February 2010 issue of Education Matters: Insights
on Education, Learning and Training in Canada contains two articles:
[Click the above link for summaries of the articles; click below for the actual articles.]
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Bonus in this issue:
(February 2010)

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January 29

As tuition fees have risen, more students have relied on student loans to help finance their postsecondary education and debt loads have gone up. This situation in turn has had an impact on individual students' financial positions after graduation. This study, based on data from three different surveys, found that well over one-half (57%) of the graduating class of 2005 had student loans, up from 49% 10 years earlier. Average student debt on graduation rose from $15,200 to $18,800 during the same decade. Also, the proportion of borrowers who graduated with debt loads of at least $25,000 increased to 27% in 2005 from 17% in 1995.

The financial impact of student loans
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* Full article:

(220K, 14 pages)

Source:

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Recent release from the
:

News Release
November 30, 2009
SRDC released a report which shows that offering career education and an early guarantee of financial aid to high school students can have significant impacts on their interest in post-secondary studies. The Future to Discover Interim Impacts Report provides the latest update on a project positioned to help Canada tackle two policy challenges it faces in the near future. These are the joint challenges of providing optimal futures to its less-advantaged youth, while overcoming a predicted shortage of skilled workers.

Complete report:

(PDF - 4.5MB, 180 pages)
November 2009

(1.4MB, 22 pages)
Future to Discover is a pilot project testing the effectiveness of two interventions designed to help students overcome certain barriers to post-secondary education, namely lack of career clarity, misinformation about post-secondary education, and lack of financial resources. This report presents interim impacts of the project, which has involved 5,429 students at 51 high schools in Manitoba and New Brunswick since 2004.

Source:

The Social Research and Demonstration Corporation (SRDC) is a non-profit research organization, with offices in Ottawa and Vancouver, created specifically to develop, field test, and rigorously evaluate social programs. SRDC’s two-part mission is to help policy-makers and practitioners identify policies and programs that improve the well-being of all Canadians, with a special concern for the effects on the disadvantaged, and to raise the standards of evidence that are used in assessing policies.

Nick Falvo, vice-president of the Graduate Students’ Association,
says Drop Fees campaign crucial to ensuring education for all
By Nick Falvo, Vice-president (academic) of the Graduate Students’ Association
November 7, 2009
Students from across Ontario took to the streets Nov. 5 to fight for a fairer deal for post-secondary education. This is a struggle that students must fight to win, as decreasing government funding, rising tuition fees and a slumping economy continue to place university education out of reach for a growing number of Canadians. (...) Over the past several decades, senior levels of government in Canada have decreased funding for post-secondary education. Indeed, government grants as a share of university operating revenue in Canada decreased from 80 per cent to less than 57 per cent between 1986 and 2006. As a result, the share of university operating budgets funded by tuition fees has more than doubled during the same period (increasing from 14 to 29 per cent). To be sure, tuition has been rising at the same time that the economy has nosedived. This year, roughly 80 per cent of post-secondary students in Canada said they plan to work while in school. And 70 per cent of high school graduates who do not pursue post-secondary education cite financial reasons as the main factor.
Source:
- Carleton University's newspaper since 1945
[ ]

Related link:

The Drop Fees campaign calls for changes to be made to current government post-secondary education policy that will positively benefit students and the sector in general.

From :

October 20, 2009

Canadian full-time students in undergraduate programs faced the same increase in tuition fees (+3.6%) for the 2009/2010 academic year as they did a year earlier.

September 25, 2009
At the age of 9, children varied widely in their school achievement. Some of these variations were linked to their gender, the income level of their household and the province of residence. There were also marked differences in the "education environment" of the child. These differences were linked to levels of household income.
Report:

(523K, 68 pages)
Source:

[ ]

Related subjects:
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(PDF - 278K, 77 pages)
By Sherri Torjman
September 2009
This study explores the interaction between student aid and social assistance - the two main systems in Canada that provide financial support to post-secondary students. Both systems are complex in themselves because they are governed by a wide range of rules and regulations. Their complexity is exacerbated by the constitutional nature of Canada . This paper focuses on the interface issues because of an overriding concern: Students from low-income households are under-represented in the post-secondary educational system - particularly at the university level. They face multiple barriers, including information and motivational factors, to participation. Another major problem, not surprisingly, is their limited income and assets relative to the cost of post-secondary education.
Source:

The Caledon Institute of Social Policy does rigorous, high-quality research and analysis; seeks to inform and influence public opinion and to foster public discussion on poverty and social policy; and develops and promotes concrete, practicable proposals for the reform of social programs at all levels of government and of social benefits provided by employers and the voluntary sector.

Recent education-related studies from []:

It's that time of year again – back to school for tens of thousands of students from kindergarten to college and university, for their teachers and principals and for their families who are busy preparing for another school year. In honour of this annual ritual, we have put together a few facts and figures relating to education.
Source:

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September 8, 2009

Canada surpassed 23 of the 30 member nations of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in 2007 regarding the proportion of its population aged 25 to 64 that had a university degree. In Canada, as in other countries, employment rates were consistently higher among people with postsecondary education than among those without. Canada was also among the countries that allocated the highest proportions of gross domestic product (GDP) to education, placing it seventh highest among the OECD countries.

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July 13, 2009
Just over 1,066,000 students were enrolled in Canadian universities during the academic year 2007/2008, up 0.6% from the previous academic year. This is a much slower rate of growth than the annual average increase of 2.9% since 1998/1999.
- includes three tables:
* University enrolment by registration status, program level and gender
* University enrolment by field of study and gender
* University enrolment by province and registration status

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July 13, 2009
About 241,600 students received a degree, diploma or certificate qualification from a Canadian university in 2007, a 6.9% increase from 2006. Over 80% of the increase occurred in Ontario. Nearly 61% of qualifications, or 146,700, were awarded to women, continuing a long-term trend in which female graduates outnumber their male counterparts and their proportion continues to increase.
- includes two tables:
* University qualifications awarded by program level and gender
* University qualifications awarded by field of study and gender

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April 22, 2009

More than 80% of college and university students who graduated in 2005 and did not pursue further studies had found full-time employment by 2007. In general, earnings increased by level of study. In 2007, two years after graduation, just over one-quarter of those who owed student debt at the time they graduated had paid it off.
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February 12, 2009

Not all postsecondary students in Atlantic Canada remained at the same university or college until they graduated. Many of these students moved between institutions, and many others appeared to have temporarily suspended their postsecondary education for short periods.

Moving Through, Moving On: Persistence
in Postsecondary Education in Atlantic
Canada, Evidence from the PSIS
(HTML)
(PDF - 604K, 91 pages)
By Ross Finnie and Theresa Qiu
February 2009
This report provides new and unique empirical evidence on Postsecondary Education (PSE) pathways in Atlantic Canada based on the Postsecondary Student Information System (“PSIS”).

November 3, 2008

The proportion of students who left their postsecondary studies without graduating for whatever reason, between 1999 and 2005, varied by type of educational institution.A group of Canadian students, who were between the ages of 18 and 20 in 1999, were interviewed about where they stood in their education and labour market pathways in December 2005 when they were between 24 and 26. Within the whole group, about 21% of these young adults who pursued postsecondary education had left their studies without graduating, as of December 2005.

Complete study:

(PDF - 313K, 39 pages)
November 2008
The purpose of this paper is to capture and profile postsecondary education dropouts from three different types of postsecondary education – university, college and other types of institutions. It compares them with graduates from these three types of institutions.

"The Canada Education Savings Grant (CESG) is a grant from the Government of Canada paid directly into a beneficiary's Registered Education Savings Plan (RESP). It adds 20 percent to the first $2,000 in contributions made into an RESP on behalf of an eligible beneficiary each year. This means the Grant can be as much as $400 each year per beneficiary and over the years could amount to a total of $7,200.
- incl. links to : E-Services * Frequently Asked Questions * General Information * Publications * Related Links