INTERACTIVE CHARTS: Manitoba Education- A decade of decline
Earlier this year a report on educational performance showed that Manitoba ranked near the bottom of Canada's provinces. It wasn't the first dismal report card issued for the province's education system. In fact, independent assessments show over the last decade that Manitoba has been steadily sliding in educational performance, despite annual spending of more than 3.7 billion dollars. It has caused leaders in both education an business to cry that we are falling behind in the area most crucial to Manitoba's future.
What is PISA?
PISA stands for Programme for International Student Assessment
It is designed to evaluate the skill and knowledge of 15-year-old students every three years in reading, mathematics and science in 65 countries. It also looks at factors that contribute to success in schools. PISA uses 15-year-olds because that is the last year of compulsary education in many countries.
About 23,000 Canadian students from more then 1,000 schools participated in PISA 2009. (The assessment for 2012 will be available next year.)
Since 2000 PISA has shown that strong reading skills are a significant indicator of later academic success. Students at the top PISA reading level are 20 times more likely to go to university than those in the lowest level.
Declining rankings
Source: PISA
Drop Out Rates
Between 2007-2012, Manitoba's dropout rate was second highest among the provinces.
Source: Statistics Canada
Drop Out Rate Reductions
While Manitoba has reduced the dropout rate between 1995-2007, most other provinces have done much better.
Source: Statistics Canada
Percentage of labour force age 25 - 54 with a post secondary certificate or diploma
Between 2005 and 2010 educational attainment in Manitoba's labour force grew 3.8 percentage points, the third slowest gain of all jurisdictions. The gap in educational attainment between Manitoba and other provinces has been increasing over the past five years.
Source: Statistics Canada
Number of computers per student
Access to technology does not appear to be a strong indicator of educational success.
Quebec students who perform well on PISA assessments have significantly fewer computers in the class than those of Manitoba.
Source: Statistics Canada
Total expenditures per student
Manitoba's relatively poor performance on PISA cannot be attributed to lack of spending. Between 2005/6 - 2009/10, the province spends more per student than any province except for Alberta.
Source: Statistics Canada
Student teacher ratios
Student class sizes did not seem to have an impact on academic performance.
With 16.6 students for each teacher, B.C. has the highest student/teacher ratio, yet is near the top in academic performance. Manitoba sits in the middle of the pack.
Source: Statistics Canada
Average remuneration per educator
Manitoba teachers in public elementary and secondary schools are better paid than those in Saskatchewan and five other provinces. (Average salary for year 2009/2010)
Source: Statistics Canada