Canada loses ground on literacy

By Carol Goar. Literacy advocates demoralized by global survey that shows Canada regressing. The word “depressing” pops up three times on the first page of the Toronto Dominion Bank’s latest report on Canadian literacy. Troubling, worrying, alarming and abysmal also figure prominently in the nine-page analysis. What prompted this unbanker-like outpouring from TD Economics was a survey of essential skills by the OECD (Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development) ranking 24 industrial countries on basic literacy and numeracy. Canada’s literacy score was a mediocre 11th. Its numeracy score was a below-average 14th. More...