Canada an "Education Super Power"

I recently came across an article from BBC on Canada of all topics, and to add to the surprise "Education in Canada". https://www.bbc.com/news/business-40708421

You can read it for yourself following the link above but needless to say education certainly does not occupy a great deal of print space in most media outlets in Canada. For some reason, education is less of a concern than it is in many other western countries, especially the country south of us. I recall how surprised I was whilst traveling in North Dakota one summer to find a story about school textbooks of all topics on the front page of a newspaper! It's hard to imagine that occurring in Canada. So what gives? Are Canadians indifferent to our education system? That's certainly a possibility and given the recent turnouts in elections in Ontario and Manitoba (50%) the populace seems to be becoming indifferent in general. However, seeing as education has always been an infrequent topic in our media I'm inclined to think otherwise. Perhaps it's old fashioned Canadian modesty or aplomb - or perhaps its more than that. See I think Canadians generally are very satisfied and confident in their public schools. Let me explain.

Unlike most other countries, private school enrolment is relatively small and in addition, there is not the sensibility in Canada that you "need" to get your children into private schools. The reason? While Scandinavian and Asian countries are frequently praised for their high achievement levels, much overlooked is Canada. BBC tells us:

• In the most recent round of international Pisa tests, Canada was one of a handful of countries to appear in the top 10 for maths, science, and reading
• The tests, run by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), are a major study of educational performance and show Canada's teenagers as among the best educated in the world, and they are far ahead of geographical neighbors such as the US and European countries with strong cultural ties like the UK and France.
• At the university level, Canada has the world's highest proportion of working-age adults who have been through higher education - 55% compared with an average in OECD countries of 35%.

See I think most Canadians know this. They don't know it because they read it in the newspapers but they know it because they have benefitted from our public schools and they see that their children are as well. What is equally remarkable is something else the BBC has noticed. In most of the world, immigrants come to a country and they receive a sub standard education which makes it even more difficult for them to find their way and "get ahead" in a new country. But in Canada children of newly-arrived, migrant families seem to integrate rapidly enough to perform at the same high level as their classmates. In most cases, this happens within 3 years. In fact, we have seen the same phenomena here at Dr. George with the children of new Canadians who have attended our school as well. So why is this? According to the BBC:

Andreas Schleicher, the OECD's education director, says Canada's "big uniting theme is equity". Despite the different policies in individual provinces, there is a common commitment to an equal chance in school. He says there is a strong sense of fairness and equal access - and this is seen in the high academic performance of migrant children.

It's not just migrant children who benefit, but children of MOST socio-economic status as well. I want to add the caveat MOST because as of yet we still have a long way to go to include indigenous children in this success story. We do have a map to accomplish this however in the 94 Reconciliation Calls to Action. But herein lies both the greatest irony and least understood feature of our history. You see equity and fairness are not values brought to Canada by Europeans. Even a cursory look at European history will tell you that they were regimented and hierarchical societies. Values of equity and fairness are of indigenous origin. This was made poignant in John Ralston Sauls book "Canada: A Fair Country." By living with, learning from, and ultimately being so dependent upon the indigenous people, Europeans became like them and adopted their values. It was what was needed to survive in this land - these are what became Canadian Values.

So if the education system in Canada is remarkable and excels, and if this success is an expression of our values then we owe yet another great debt to our indigenous people. So isn't it also time they became part of the success story?