Charting a Path to the Future: The Pan-American Cooperative

DR. ROSEANN O'REILLY RUNTE, President, Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada.

Several years ago, a report to UNESCO outlined a series of tensions in education, omitting the two principle sources of tension I have observed personally: time and money. As our knowledge of the universe expands, there is ever more material to include in the curriculum. We want our students to be both broadly educated and expert in at least one field. They need not only acquire literacy and numeracy, but also computing skills and more than one language. Faculty are pressured by the need to revise continually the curriculum and renew research striving for greater interdisciplinarity and pertinence. Universities are expected to teach and perform innovative research, while providing leadership in the fields of civic engagement and economic development.

Universities are indeed efficient and effective and have demonstrated their ability to respond to society’s needs, and grow with these READ MORE...

In the past decade, Ontario Veterinary College has seen its student numbers turned on their head: Women account for more than 80 per cent of its students during that time, and now make up more than half of the province's practising vets. It's an extreme example of a story that is playing out on campuses in Canada and around the world - and a trend that could have profound social implications. There are now three female undergraduates for every two male students on Canadian campuses, and more women than men graduated with higher education degrees in 75 of 98 countries examined in a recent UNESCO study. Women are expected to gain more power in public and corporate life and more financial independence.
Source: Toronto Globe and Mail

THE NEWS

Aboriginals More Likely to Volunteer than Non-Natives: Study
Ottawa Citizen
First Nations, Inuit and Metis have higher rates of volunteerism and family involvement than non-aboriginal Canadians, according to a new study that suggests a different way of measuring the educational performance of aboriginals. The study by the Canadian Council on Learning says such things as the use of ancestral languages, participating in cultural ceremonies and hunting should all be factored in when evaluating aboriginal education — instead of focusing only on traditional areas, such as high-school attainment and prose-literacy levels.

Valcartier School Children Honour Soldiers
CBC News
Canadian soldiers from Quebec's Valcartier military base were honoured in a special tribute from the community's schoolchildren on Tuesday. Students at the Dollard-des-Ormeaux School in the nearby town of Courcelette have spent months organizing the tribute, which includes cheery, painted posters with messages of support for soldiers and handmade wood plaques. About 85 per cent of students at the school have at least one parent in the military

Selling Kids on Education Isn't Easy
Mindelle Jacobs, Winnipeg Sun
A pilot project in Manitoba and New Brunswick schools funded by the Canada Millennium Foundation has found that enhanced career education and a promise of financial help boosts the interest of students in ongoing education. The project followed more than 5,000 students in the two provinces for several years through high school to test whether these interventions would increase the students' chances of graduating from high school and enrolling in and completing a post-secondary program.

Public School Board Faces $14M in Cuts
Joanne Laucius, Ottawa Citizen
Ottawa’s public school board is contemplating $14 million in cuts to balance its budget — and the trims being considered range from reducing the supply teacher budget to trimming transportation costs. The $14-million cuts represent about two per cent of the $706.4 million budget. The figure is a working number — Queen’s Park won’t tell the board exactly how much it will get in grants until May, but the shortfall is anticipated to be in the $10 to $18 million range.

Having Kids? Pull out the Wallet and Get Set to Invest
Joanne Laucius, Ottawa Citizen
Ottawa’s public school board is contemplating $14 million in cuts to balance its budget — and the trims being considered range from reducing the supply teacher budget to trimming transportation costs. The $14-million cuts represent about two per cent of the $706.4 million budget. The figure is a working number — Queen’s Park won’t tell the board exactly how much it will get in grants until May, but the shortfall is anticipated to be in the $10 to $18 million range.

Quebec Ends 24-Year Deal to Fund Jewish Secondary Students
Montreal Gazette
The Quebec Education Department has decided to end a 24-year arrangement by which it provides public funding through the Marie-Victorin CEGEP to allow Orthodox Jewish students to study at the junior-college level. Officials from the department will begin discussions with the school, and a transition plan is to be put into place covering students who are currently enrolled, so that they can finish their courses. The students as well as teachers affected by the decision are segregated by sex.

Complaint Filed With UN
Gerry Bellett, Regina Leader-Post
The University of British Columbia's Alma Mater Society has lodged a complaint with the United Nations that Canada is violating an international covenant signed in 1976, in which Canada promised eventually to provide free post-secondary education. The complaint points to dramatic increases in absence of tuition freezes, resulting in low-income families being unable to afford to attend universities or colleges.

U of A Grad Students Face Fee Hike
Elise Stolte, Edmonton Journal
A plan to almost double graduate fees at the University of Alberta would bring them in line with the national average, and students want a joint panel to decide how the millions in new money would be spent. About 7,000 masters and PhD students currently pay about $3,590 a year in tuition, and about half as much in their final years if they are just writing a thesis. The provost's office wants to raise that by 70 per cent over the next three years, to $6,090.

University Canada West Launches Scholarship Contest
PR Web
“School’s not cheap!” But, thanks to University Canada West’s $1 Million Scholarship program, students don’t have to worry. UCAN is giving high school students a chance to earn $5,000 towards their education by creating a video response. The video scholarship is just one of more than 500 awards available to 2010 graduates. Applicants must record a video that talks about the value of learning in a multicultural environment like UCAN and post it as a video comment on UCAN’s YouTube page.

Hiring Plans Not Keeping up with Recovery
Toronto Globe and Mail
Canada's economic recovery may be gathering speed, but a new survey released by Manpower Canada suggests the road remains bumpy for the labour market. The survey of more than 1,900 Canadian employers shows the net employment outlook rose to 13 per cent on a seasonally adjusted basis. It's the highest level in a year, though down 5 percentage points from last year's levels. About 15 per cent of employers plan to add to payrolls, 13 per cent see cutbacks and 70 per cent will maintain staffing levels. Two per cent are unsure.

India Maoist Conflict 'Affects Children's Education'
Chris Morris, BBC News
In a new report, Human Rights Watch has urged rebels to stop attacking state-run schools in India. It has also asked the government to instruct its troops not to use school buildings as part of their operations. According to the government, the rebels have a presence in more than 223 of India's 600-odd districts across 20 states. HRW says school children - often from the poorest families - are suffering in specific ways. The Maoists have attacked schools as symbols of state power in rural area - a total of 14 schools have been attacked in the states of Jharkhand and Bihar alone over the past month.

More Children to Get Free Meals Says Pre-Budget Report
Gary Eason, BBC News
In the 2009 school census in England, 656,500 children in nursery and primary education qualified for free meals and 439,000 in secondary schools. Chancellor of the Exchequer, Alistair Darling, said in his pre-budget report that another half a million school children in England will also receive free lunches. He also promised spending on schools in the UK would continue to increase above inflation after 2010-11.

Deployments Taking Toll on Military’s Children
James Dao, New York Times
A study commissioned by the National Military Family Association in the U.S. found that children in military families were more likely to report anxiety than children in the general population. The researchers also found that the longer a parent had been deployed in the previous three years, the more likely their children were to have difficulties in school and at home. The study was based on 1,500 telephone interviews with children ages 11 to 17, and their primary caregivers.

One in Four Kids Developmentally Vulnerable
Ben Worsley, ABC News- Australia
Australia has completed its first ever census of the nation’s five-year-olds. Ninety-eight percent of the country’s five-year-olds, or 261,000 kids, were tested over the past year for developmental vulnerability. 'Developmentally vulnerable' means a child is in the lowest 10 per cent in at least one of five categories, including physical health, behaviour, emotions, language and communication. The census found that a third of children living in Australia's poorer suburbs fall into the lowest grouping at some point, compared to 6 per cent of those in wealthier suburbs.

Math Scores Show Improvement at Schools in Large U.S. Cities
Sally Holland, CNN
Public school students in major metropolitan areas are showing improvement on test scores in mathematics from previous years, according to a report released Tuesday by the Department of Education. In Austin, Texas, and San Diego, eighth-graders raised their scores. In Boston, and Washington, fourth-grade students showed the gains. The report from the National Assessment of Educational Progress compared test scores from those two grades in 18 urban school districts.

Future to Discover Pilot Project: Early Implementation Report
The Future to Discover project is 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. Post-secondary education (PSE) is now a requirement for a majority of jobs in today’s labour market, and although Canada enjoys one of the highest rates of post-secondary education attainment in the world overall, high rates of PSE attainment are not shared by all Canadians. The solution lies in part in increasing access among those who are currently less likely to access PSE, as they represent a critical driver of future labour market growth for Canada1. Those from lower income families and those who would be first in their family to attend PSE (“first generation” students) are significantly less likely to go on to education after high school. The Future to Discover project tested two new approaches designed to encourage such students to access postsecondary education by addressing potential barriers, starting early in high school.