March 6, 2007

Don Drummond, Senior Vice-President and Chief Economist, TD Bank Financial Group, and Veronica Lacey, President and CEO, The Learning Partnership
"Teaching in an increasingly diverse classroom"
Article as published in The Globe and Mail.

Demographic trends are placing new challenges on our public education system, forever changing the composition of Canadian classrooms. How well we educate our increasingly diverse student population and, in turn, facilitate their transitions into the work force will largely determine our future economic success.

Classrooms are evolving in Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal, as the majority of new Canadians -- 250,000 annually -- take up residence in these cities. In good part due to the influx of immigrants, visible minorities will represent 50 per cent of the population of the former two cities in 10 years.

Aboriginal students already account for 5.6 per cent of the school age population across Canada. But in Manitoba and Saskatchewan, they represent 20 per cent of that base. In 10 years, this proportion is expected to rise to 30 per cent.

What do these numbers mean in practical terms? To be sure, teachers must find ways to connect with students who are unable to speak either official language, let alone understand mainstream Canadian society and culture. And while the objective is to help them prepare for and integrate into the workplace, teachers must do so in a way that respects their unique backgrounds and perspectives.

Given the swift changes the public school system has contended with in recent years, it has performed admirably. Teachers have provided sound education to hundreds of thousands of immigrants. By all accounts, they have fostered a more productive, healthier and civil society.

According to an exhaustive report by The Learning Partnership, children of immigrants generally do as well as Canadian-born children in school. Children of immigrant parents whose first language is either English or French have especially high outcomes.

"But," as the report states, "the belief that all immigrants do well in school can be misleading." There is a fault line, for instance, between immigrant populations when it comes to educational attainment. The success of some groups may mask underperformance by other groups of non-English or French-speaking immigrants.

Challenges also arise among aboriginal populations and students in rural communities.

Aboriginals fare much worse than non-aboriginals. Thirty per cent of aboriginal youth drop out of school -- double the general population rate. Their grade repetition rate is also double.

Interestingly, aboriginals who graduate from postsecondary institutions share similar employment levels as non- aboriginals.

Rural students experience higher dropout rates and relatively poor performance when compared to urban students, particularly in Newfoundland and Labrador, Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick and Alberta. Moreover, due to limited resources, students do not have the same range of courses and educational experiences.

Even where education outcomes are solid, the bar remains high for successful transition into the work force. Our national unemployment level is 6.2 per cent. But it's four times higher for newly arrived immigrants, and remains above the national average even after living 10 years in Canada. The unemployment rate among aboriginal populations is almost 20 per cent.

Moreover, both aboriginal and immigrant populations experience lower than average incomes.

Given these outcomes, we have to ask whether Canada is doing the best it can for these children, their families and our overall standard of living. The answer is no.

More attention must be paid to improving the settlement process for families, as well as integrating adults into the work force. These efforts benefit students who enjoy a secure and stable family life, more conducive to learning.

More meaningful contributions should be made in the classroom. However, given our official policy of multiculturalism, The Learning Partnership notes that efforts must strike a balance between assimilating newcomers into the mainstream education system and maintaining their cultural identity.

Such an approach will require educators to link learning materials relevant for a student's success in Canadian society with the emotional and intellectual foundations of a student's culture. It will also necessitate solutions that celebrate and benefit from diversity while enforcing social cohesion.

We consider taking action an economic imperative. Education facilitates prosperity, more so than ever before. That's because it is responsible for producing an innovative and fully engaged work force; one that we must fully utilize to sustain a high standard of living.

To this end, no one segment can be overlooked or undervalued. Better outcomes need to be generated for our immigrant, aboriginal and rural populations.

Don Drummond is chief economist of Toronto-Dominion Bank. Veronica Lacey is president and CEO of The Learning Partnership.