Gender gap emerges in school readinessToronto Star- Editorials and Opinion, Nov. 26,
2003. Page A28
A report released yesterday by the Canadian
Education Statistics Council entitled Education Indicators in
Canada found that boys may be at a disadvantage to girls when
entering school. Here is an edited excerpt:
The developmental stages of early childhood
are complex, multidimensional and interdependent. For example,
the ability to participate in age-appropriate conversations is
in part dependent on a child's oral acuity, or physical
development. For any one child, his or her stage of early
childhood development can influence how prepared he or she is
to enter school .
Long-term success in school, as well as later
in life, may be influenced by what a child achieves in the
first years of school. The first years in school lay the
foundation in reading and writing, mathematics and science
concepts.
James Heckman, Nobel Prize winner in
economics, has claimed that "all the available evidence points
to the great long-run value of raising the skill levels and
motivation of the very young. Research in psychology and
economics indicates that skill begets skill; early learning
promotes later learning. Investment in the education and
training of the very young earns a far higher return than
investment placed in a teenager or middle-age adult."
In recent years, all orders of government in
Canada have turned their attention to the question of whether
children are ready to enter school fully prepared for the
academic and social challenges they will face. ...
Once they enter Grade 1, children are expected
to begin learning to read and write. Access to books and
pencils and language development during the pre-school years
help prepare children for the reading and writing challenges
they will confront in Grade 1.
Although the majority of 4-year-olds,
according to their parents, looked at books, magazines or
comics at home, by themselves, a gender gap emerged: 79 per
cent of girls looked at books daily, compared with 64 per cent
of boys.
Young children develop an appetite for reading
when they are surrounded by reading material, have the
opportunity to see adults reading as a habit and are read to
at a very early age. This seems to have been the case for a
majority of young children in 1998-1999: Two-thirds of 4- and
5-year-olds had an adult who read to them every day .
However, this means that about a third will
enter school without this high level of familiarity with books
and printed material.
There was no difference between boys and girls
in their access to an adult who read to them daily. However,
there is a difference in terms of parents encouraging their
young child to write: 65 per cent of girls' parents encouraged
them to write daily, compared with 51 per cent for boys.
Canadian Education Statistics Council Link
Read the complete report
Statistics Canada's Centre for Education
Statistics develops
surveys, provides
statistics and conducts
research and analysis relevant to current issues in
education, training and literacy. Its program is developed in
consultation with the
Canadian Education Statistics Council (a partnership of
Statistics Canada and the
Council of Ministers of Education, Canada) and other
education stakeholders.
Education indicators in
Canada: Report of the Pan-Canadian Education Indicators
Program
| Volume 2003, number 1 |
HTML |
| Volume 1999, number 1 |
HTML |
|
| Catalogue No.: |
81-582-XIE |
| Latest issue: |
2003 no.3 |
| Release date: |
November 25, 2003 |
| Frequency: |
Occasional |
| Medium: |
Internet Also
Available in:
Paper |
| Language: |
Separate English and French editions |
| Status: |
Available |
| Subject: |
Education |
| DSP: |
Yes |
| DLI: |
No |
| ISBN: |
0-662-35373-0 |
|
