The Excellence in Literacy Foundation: Important Facts

Important Facts

Literacy is becoming a luxury item in Canada.

Socio-economic status and race are two of the strongest determinants for Canadian illiteracy.

Canadians should be deeply concerned about these facts:

  1. In Ontario schools, only 61 % of students are classified as literate. The current government is aiming to have only 75 % of our elementary students literate by 2008. (Ben Levin, Deputy Minister of Education, 10/21/05).
  2. 42 % of Canadians are semi-illiterate.
  3. For the past 15 years there has been scarcely any improvement in Canada's literacy rate (The National, 05/24/06).
  4. More than 50% of people who receive social assistance are not able to read and write well.
  5. 70% of 626 surveyed companies feel that they have a significant problem with functional literacy in some part of their organization (Statistics Canada).
  6. During the first run of the Ontario High School Literacy tests, 39% of grade 10 students failed either the reading or writing component.
  7. In one small east-end Toronto school where students are mostly poor, only 8% of children passed the grade 10 literacy test. Children from 4 extremely affluent schools scored in the vicinity of 90% (NOW Magazine, March 22, 2001).
  8. “22 per cent of university graduates do not achieve adequate scores on prose literacy …between 11 and 14 per cent of Canadian born university graduates aged 26 to 55 have inadequate prose literacy.” (TD Bank. Literacy Matters: A Call for Action . 2007)
  9. Our population is growing faster than our rate of literacy improvement. (HRSD 2005)
  10. “Three provinces, British Columbia, Quebec and Ontario have, in total, 7 million of the 9 million people with low literacy.” (Canadian Council on Learning. State of Learning in Canada: No Time for Complacency. 2007)
  11. “With health-literacy skills that are considered to be at level 2 and below (IALSS definition), 60% of adult Canadians lack the capacity to obtain, understand and act upon health information and services and to make appropriate health decisions on their own.” (Canadian Council on Learning Health Literacy in Canada. 2007)
  12. 20-40 % of Canadian youth fail to acquire the level of skill believed to be essential to future economic and social success. (Canadian Council on Learning. State of Learning in Canada: No Time for Complacency. 2007)

Many of our First Nations partners report that:

Child and youth illiteracy rates in their communities range from 92% to 98%. Unemployment rates in their communities range from 85% to 95%.

Fetal Alcohol Syndrome rates are up to 40% in some communities. High school dropout rates sometimes approach 100%.

 
Content last updated May 23, 2008