I find it ironic that on the one hand "Canadians are more educated now than ever," and yet grads have become such poor writers and readers.I had always thought that writing and reading skills were a distinguishing mark of being considered educated. Perhaps educated and intelligent have different meanings.

"Because approximately 25% of incoming students, most of whom are from Ontario high schools, are not able to pass the test at Waterloo." Is a very misleading sentence, because it implies those who fail are likely from Ontario schools.

In my experience (Queen's Engineering) Most of the students who fail the literacy test are speaking English as a Second Language, mostly Asian. The fact that the overall program is made mostly of Ontario high schools is irrelevant.

Generally, these students can speak, read and understand, but their writing skills are poor. 4 years in an engineering program being exposed to English makes a big difference.

Al has it right, in part: quoting two different statistics (% of students from Ontario high schools and % failing the test) the way the writer has done doesn't imply a relationship between the two -- one would have to look at the joint distribution of the two -- so the logic is indeed flawed.

Still, my past life as an academic at an Ontario university (I left for the private sector where the money was better and I didn't have helicopter parents and a spineless administration to deal with, never been happier, btw) taught me that the Ontario high school system is more than capable of producing functionally illiterate graduates.

This is the outcome of 'social promotion' and other silly schemes that avoid offending a child by declaring that he or she has not made the grade. But then, when I find myself correcting the basic english in written communications from my youngest daughter's elementary school, I wonder if the situation can ever be improved.

I remember taking a similar test when entering University 25 years ago when similar complaints were being made. I failed the test by the way, even with a 92% mark in grade 12 high school English. To rectify this deficiency I had to take an introductory English course at University. Others in a similar situation chose an English course based on the English language fundamentals. I chose a course on analyzing short stories and novels where we were required to write essays in class and on tests based on the novels & stories we read. No instruction was given regarding how to write a proper essay. I received a mark of 84% on the first essay assignment and an overall mark of 82 % in the course. So how did I manage to fail the required English competency exam on entrance, yet excel during the English course with no further instruction on the ability to write English ??

Look at this!!

I don't get how that's possible? Why are we letting people graduate from high school if they can't read? What was the point of high school if they can't damn well read?

I recently received my degree in Political Studies from Queen's and I can't imagine having met anyone there who you could claim would be unable to read. The sheer amount of reading and essay writing you have to do should be an indicator. Ya, some people fail, but mostly those who just don't do the work. I find it hard to believe anyone could advance to any point through university without the basics of literacy.

And I don't just mean essay writing, for those who assume you could just hire others to write your essays for you. I'm talking about exams. Exams where you write 2 to 4 THOUSAND word essays in that one exam session alone. Granted, Politics is a bit more heavy on the essays than some other disciplines, but I've heard similar stories from other humanities courses like History.

I'd like to know if there's some kind of discipline distribution to be observed for those who supposedly can't read and write properly. If they're all in music of theater... I can understand that a bit as a theater student friend of mine never had any exams... but I just can't fathom how someone could get through university without this basic requirement. ALL you do in university IS read and write. Can someone explain to me what university you can go to where you would be able to get through a single course without those two abilities?

As a high school teacher, who is constantly being bullied by parents, spoiled children, and incompetent administrators, it is no surprise to me that standards are falling (and rapidly). Asia is going to each our lunch. (And yes, I have taught several years in Asia, as well as in Canada, so yes, I CAN compare the systems.) So it takes longer to pass a course, or repeat a course to get an even better understanding of the concepts missed the first time around...do it! I have. Now I hold 3 degrees. Speak, read and write in 3 languages. Ask the classroom teacher what is required, implement it, and get out of the way! :-)

The article notes that reading should start at a young age, and this I would attest to. My parents read to me and my siblings when we were very young. When we were older we had bed times, but could stay up an extra half hour and read quietly in our rooms. I think these two practices made all of us into avid readers for the rest of our lives. It's a parental responsibility as much as the school system's.

I fully agree with Phyllograptus' take on the situation. I had above 90% in English, and had even aced the written final exam in grade 12, but when taking the ELPE, I barely squeaked by. I swear to goodness they looked at the fact that I was in math, and dropped my mark by default.

Apparently the author of this article, despite passing the English proficency test and graduating from university, still does not grasp the difference between 'amount' and 'number.

How ironic that that writer of this piece does not know the rules for comma placement:

"If you don't already know the words to, Goodnight Moon and Green Eggs and Ham, it might already be too late."

As experienced by Erika & myself the English language exams required by some universities are not necessarily about basic English language writing skills. At the time when I failed that exam there was an on going uproar about English writing skills decline of university applicants, which is why the exam was implemented. The year I wrote it (1983) over half of the applicants failed it, and the reasons for this terrible result and the naval gazing that followed this horrific result were front page news and an education crisis. Yet as with my experience, most of those who failed it had very little problem immediately coping with the writing requirements in university. By the way, I didn't take a theatre or drama major, but rather graduated with a B. Sc. in Geology, in which field I continue to work.

There should be standardized English exams throughout high school and before university admission. Standards should be higher. It doesn't matter if you are to study science or engineering. University graduates should have very strong writing, reading and communication skills regardless of discipline. I am truly shocked by this article. University graduates who lack basic skills cheapen what a university degree means for us all.
The problem is that too many students are getting admitted to university in the first place. The idea that a university education should be for everyone is a mistake. A lot of people entering university lack the skills and motivation to make it there.
I know too many first-rate literature, foreign language and history majors (and some with grad degrees in these areas too) who can't get jobs and whose degrees aren't taken seriously. At least they can write and read and are worthy of their credentials. Give them a chance maybe, before hiring the ditz with a more "relevant" degree and set of nice and shiny work experiences. Why not give someone a chance with an old-fashioned degree with a brain and excellent basic skills??

I recently came across your blog and have been reading along. I thought I would leave my first comment. I don't know what to say except that I have enjoyed reading. Nice blog. I will keep visiting this blog very often.

Sarah

http://www.clpostingguide.info

Anyone who doesn't know the difference between "amount" and "number" isn't as literate as they think they are.

I'd be interested in seeing the test they used to establish these results. I just when to the CCL website and did their handy little online literacy test. According to the test, I am highly scoring in document and numerical literacy (as I think they were referred to), but only at a level 2 in prose literacy. Granted, as a PhD student in the sciences I don't have as much of a chance to read novels at the moment, but I have never had a problem holding my own in a conversation about literary works (although, as the results gently point out to me, at my level of illiteracy I am liable to be overconfident in my abilities, so take this with a grain of salt).

A problem I have always had with these questions is that literacy tests NEVER accept that writing can have two meanings, and what a phrase or passage from the literature is highly dependent on personal values and experience. I can see it as a confounding variable that once people are at a university level, they are more likely to read and evaluate in a number of different ways. And as is the case with any university, college, or high school class, I don't think it's reasonable to make these broad generalisations about university graduate literacy rates without knowing that your test is valid and unbiased (which they may have addressed, but I can't find a copy of this report).

That said, my experience as a teaching assistant has revealed some appalling examples of writing and clear examples of students who can't follow written directions. I'm leaning towards chalking that up to laziness, though.

I thought the implementation of a standardized literacy test in Ontario was meant to ensure that all High School graduates, let alone University graduates, were basically literate at least. In this regard, the fact that Waterloo's population is primarily Ontario students is important: those of you arguing that it is not Ontario students but ESL students are forgetting that those ESL students could very well have graduated from the Ontario secondary curriculum, whose literacy test seems to have failed in its objective.

Grading first year essays and exams, which I am currently staring at a stack of, can be a painful and depressing process. The Secondary curriculum countrywide has failed in its goal of ensuring that all students can even put together a basic sentence, or a paragraph. At least I only rarely run into "LOL" and other netspeak.

Frankly put, I agree with new_about_town. With University being the expected norm of education, democratization of education has decreased standards and made the BA the new High School Diploma. Master's graduates are struggling to find work in the service industry. There should be a greater emphasis on and promotion of community colleges and apprenticeship programs as excellent paths to careers for those who are not university inclined (and frankly, a graduate of an apprenticeship will make a heck of a lot more than I do when I pull out a PhD in a few years!).

I'm not really sure Asia's going to eat us for lunch. I too have worked in Asia and some aspects of the system are to be lauded while others leave much to be desired. Sure the students are usually harder working but in some cases they have not been taught how to work effectively and lack certain creative thinking skills.

As far as Ontario's system is concerned, it is troubling that so many people graduate without sufficient literacy skills. What we probably should be doing is encouraging little children to read and enjoy books. This requires teachers and parents to work in tandem. It requires library visits, books in the home and behavioral modeling (i.e. parents seen reading by themselves or to their children). While teachers and the curriculum may be part of the problem, people need to realize that the major source of the problem starts with the parents. Parents are with their children for longer periods of time and have more influence. If parents don't pick up the slack even the greatest teacher will have difficulty convincing a kid to do the right thing.

Finally, could this decline in literacy be related to the devaluing of English and Liberal Arts that we have been seeing for quite sometime? The emphasis has been on maths and science with the arts, and English in particular, seen as unimportant because they don't directly help you get a 'good' job. We can't expect students to take literacy, books and English seriously if all around them adults talk about it in a disdainful manner.

I've been teaching part-time in a School of Business at a university in Atlantic Canada for more than a decade and can attest to the poor literacy skills of many recent high school graduates. Many students are incapable of using language to create persuasive arguments, but even more disturbing is the inability of some students to master simple language skills such as how to structure a paragraph or how to apply rules of grammar and punctuation. A significant proportion of my students also do not seem to understand when to use its vs it's, accept vs except, it vs they (in reference to a corporation), they're vs there vs their, or when to use capitalization. Forget high school standards, aren't these supposed to be elementary school skills?

Finally, my pet peeve with Business students is the argument I am faced with each semester about the fairness of evaluating literacy as part of the grading process. "But this isn't an English class, so we shouldn't lose marks just for spelling or grammar." If only it were merely spelling and grammar that requires remediation! Apparently, students expect incoherence to be permissible as long as it occurs outside the English department. There are times I am sure I spend more time correcting a paper than the student spent writing it. On occasion I have simply given up part way through a paper because I cannot, despite rereading, understand what the student is attempting to argue. It is all very frustrating.

I took a university English course a few years back, and half the (fresh out of high-school) class could barely read at all. At one point we were asked to read a short paragraph in class. I was done in (literally) about 10 seconds, then I waited and watched other students struggle with the same paragraph for 15-20 minutes. At the end, we discussed the text, and they didn't seem to know what they had read !! I couldn't believe that anyone (much less so many) could function at such a low level of literacy.

The problem seems to be that they don't (and have never) read anything on their own!

Question: how would you feel about flying in a plane where the pilot 'passed' his license with 50% of the questions wrong?

Yet in Ontario high skewls that's all ya need. My son NEVER did a day's worth of homework and passed. Amazin' alright.

Ten years ago when my older kids were in high school in Ottawa, an old-time teacher told me that if she gave the same exam she had in the '70's only about twenty percent of her students would pass. So...they just dumbed the whole curriculum down, and who cared if the kiddies could read or right their names. Or is it 'write'? Gee that's a hard one ain't it?

And that of course was before Canada decided to be all multi-kulcheral and all. And of course pushing french--a language that is in every sense of the word...'provincial' is just a further distraction.

Now that I am living in Wisconsin, I am amazed at the education system in little Sun Prairie. My kid is in Grade 1--and getting an hour's worth of homework each night. And he's starting to memorize his times tables.

1234...there goes Canada out the door.

A copy of my reply to the person who sent me this link:

Oh, Lordy! Don't get me started!

From the time when the children were in elementary school, and I'd send the school handouts back to the principal with the spelling, punctuation and grammar corrected, to the working world in an office, trying to make sure that letters to clients and diary entries on the work log are at least comprehensible, never mind professional - it has been a losing battle.

If our educators (those that make the policies) had thought that literacy was important, it would have been taught. They didn't, it wasn't - and now we're left with a population where most under 50 think that the way they communicate on e-mail or cell phone text is the height of communicative skill.

And for anyone who reads a brief look at newspapers or recently published books will tell you that even the supposed "editors" are illiterate. Reading has started to aggravate me so much that I'm turning vigilante and reading with a red pen in hand to correct errors so that the next reader isn't encouraged to think that the mistakes I find are the correct way to do things. I also started clipping mistakes from the local papers and sending them to the editors, but found that that endeavour could take most of the day, many days, so I gave up. And that was over a decade ago, and it's only gotten worse.

Language vigilantes - Arise! Unite!

my guess is grade inflation is an important part of this problem.

To put much weight on the post-secondary stats, you first need to do two things. Remove the group of persons who are ESL. And then only look at the university graduates within the post-secondary group. "Post-secondary" can include programs that do not require high school graduation or much in the way of literacy. In some post-secondary institutions, there are programs designed to teach low-skilled adults (perhaps with developmental disabilities) to put food on trays in cafeterias, load commercial washing machines and so on. "Post-secondary" does not equate to university nor even to college.

Back in the late 70's our little trucking company started to become a success. When the 80's recession hit, it was our opportunity to break through with the trucking Big Boys that could no longer afford the internal costs coupled with falling business. Nor pay those office/land mortgages and still make payments on all their equipment. But we could offer to buy the Big Boys trucks for 10 to 30 cents on the dollar. And they were eager to sell.

In six months we expanded from 3 to 40 trucks but didn't have a clue how to run our new mid-sized business with 125 employees.--So we hired University Grads to show us what in hell to do.

Hired 22 Grads over 5 yrs, cost nearly 2 mill a yr. BAD IDEA!

Not one of them could even change a flat tire on their own car, let alone drive an 18 wheeler. Worse none of them could work outside 'The Box' they were trained in. Not inter-changeable in the slightest. Many, many failures.

Finally, we picked the very intelligent son of one of our drivers with only Grade X to manage the entire she-bang. That hard working versatile 22 yr old kid turned us into a $25 mill company and he took less wages than the 22 office people he was in charge off.

Big brains are like BIG feet, you are either born with them or you ain't. And no Shoe Store or fancy university will ever change that fact.

Buried in this article is the sad fact that universities are spending time and resources on remedial English skills. I have been teaching in university English departments, in both Ontario and Alberta, since 1986. during this period the problem hasn't really grown worse, but it hasn't improved either. Incoming students who are native English speakers read very little, most of the time, and have a fuzzy, distant relationship with written English.

I didn't realize that it wasn't the school's job to teach kids to read. You learn something new every day!

The reference to "writing clinics" is long on implication and short on facts.

Those clinics exist to strengthen writing skills more than combat illiteracy in University students aong with providing help in improving competence and aiding students where English is a second or even third language.

Hap Stokes whether you're writing for 'irony' or not I can't determine but you sound like someone who lives for Larry the Cable Guy get a life that joke is lamesauce.

I was a university academic in different regions of the country. In my experience (Humanities and Social Sciences), students were perfectly capable of both reading and writing. The problem area is reading comprehension. They know the words but they have trouble with the grammatical complexity necessary to express subtle ideas.

Reading comprehension requires practice. Internet reading doesn't count; the writing is too basic. There is no substitute for a real 'reading culture' and that comes from parental habits and library visits. If kids have that, they will be immunized against weak schooling. If you prefer TV to reading, your kids will too and it will show.

Quit carping about the writer making this or that grammatical error: editors often make revisions and newspaper writers do NOT see the final draft in most cases. The story deals with important issues, so why don't we make that our focus? I've encountered university students recently who are unable to spell common words or reliably write sentences that can be understood. I think that qualifies as functional illiteracy, which is appalling to find at a university level.

Universities need to start failing students. I attend York and am galled on a daily basis by the intellectual laziness of my peers. Worse, these students go through the motions, are allowed to progress, and graduate with degrees without issue. Professors shouldn't be afraid to fail students, even in large numbers, in order to ensure standards are maintained...or even heightened.

The anecdote about Waterloo is somewhat insufficient, though. Waterloo has an enormous number of international students who attend and the proportion of failures reflect that reality.

I assume you meant "the NUMBER of university graduates..." rather than "the amount of university graduates". When you write an article dealing with literacy, you should strive for correct grammar. University graduates do not come in bulk units...or perhaps that is the point of your article?

40% of graduates are functionally illiterate? That's unpossible!

Seriously though, it sounds like the writer has fallen victim to the old canard that 98% of statistics are mistaken.

Having passed through UWaterloo myself, I can safely attest that very few of my classmates, or any other students I encountered were functionally, or in any other way, illiterate...otherwise those huge buildings filled with books are sadly wasted, though well attended!

The conceit to suggest that so many people in our society are illiterate! None of us though, right? It's all those other idiots...

I especially like the suggestion to hire liberal arts degree holders (not to cast any undue, or undeserved aspersions) in place of people with 'relevant degrees and good work experience' yeah, who'd want to do that? I hope our city's bridges are designed by comparative literature majors! (NB - IMO There's nothing wrong with studying liberal arts, we need them too - but not for engineering!!!!!)

Two last points - as other correspondents have noted, international and ESL students write the ELPE too. The writer makes a passionate case for literacy, but has a casual relationship with Venn diagrams.

And, best remember that our ancestors would likely be aghast at what they would consider our priggish clinging to standarized spelling.

15 yeers ago I cud not spell injunear, now I are one!

I hate to pop this bubble, but I graduated with many people who could not comprehend basic written English. They were English as a Second Language Students. Many were as good or better at their degrees as any of us natural Anglophones.

I went the UWaterloo ELPE website and was shocked to see the poor quality of the essays graded at 65% and 70%. If I hired a university student and they wrote a technical report for me with that level of writing, I'd be humiliated.

Still, it is really hard to master the English language when you only in an English speaking environment for a few years. The reality at UW is that their math, science and engineering faculties are enormous and many bright students in those fields don't have great English skills.

And there is somehow a different between small typos that native speakers like the columnist might make with comma positioning and the awkward syntax offered by non-native speakers, like this essay which received a passing grade of 60% on the Waterloo ELPE: "Many people in the last year of high school have grown famillier with their friends and
way of life." We all know that even native speakers who have terrible grammar wouldn't say that...so it's unfortunate that we are attuned to these awkward sounding sentences.

But kudos to UW for at least having this test. If the sentence above represents at passing writing sample, I can't imagine the level of skill (or lack thereof) from the 25% who fail.

A school system that cannot teach children how to read is worse than worthless.

I was homeschooled. Neither of my parents earned a university degree. Our family "school system" received no government funding, charged no tuition, and was a pretty bare bones affair. Some of our work was reasonably structured, other subjects (political science, philosophy, religious studies, world geography, journalism, music) were handled more independently. The core of my learning experience was discovering reading at a pre-school age. I cannot remember a time when I could not read. The other element was being given a love of learning, having an innate desire to learn fostered and encouraged. It is difficult to do this within a system where children sometimes feel like cattle (however well meaning the teachers), and deeply desire not to be there!

The bottom line is that I learned to read... most of my generation, even many of those who graduate from university, apparently cannot. This is a damning indictment, and that it be allowed to continue, without the most drastic of changes being considered, is a crime for which there are no words.

Remember that the ELPE is often written by international students that have arrived in NA only days or weeks prior...and by native speakers in the midst of FROSH week, which may or may not have an impact on performance!

My ELPE essay was to comment on the quotation 'The wretched have no friends.' That much I remember...my thesis is lost in the mists of time...

But seriously, 40% functionally illiterate? That's like, more than half! (I kid!) No modern western industrial country like Canada could function in that situation.

Stephen Hawkings is going to be a guest professor (??) of sorts, at Waterloo..the founders of RIM are graduates..I had a math prof who was a Field's medal winner...I wonder which of these were illiterate?

In my experience (Queen's Engineering) Most of the students who fail the literacy test are speaking English as a Second Language, mostly Asian. The fact that the overall program is made mostly of Ontario high schools is irrelevant.
---------
+1

Also, I won the English Award at my high-school and am now a published author. I somehow received a marginal pass on my english proficiency exam. *shrug*

The author of this article needs to dig a lot deeper to have any credibility.

So since the link embedded in the article did not work for me, I went to www.ccl-cca.ca to read the report, but when I searched for "Post-Secondary Education in Canada 2008-2009" I got the following error message:

Sorry.

Your search - "Post-Secondary Education in Canada 2008-2009" - did not match any documents.

So what's up with that?

Another commenter (Rob) also said he couldn't find a copy of the report... can we get a link that works? I do not doubt that the author read the report, but it seems to have since disappeared...

So I just Googled "Post-Secondary Education in Canada 2008-2009" - nothing.

Quote from a previous writer:
"I didn't realize that it wasn't the school's job to teach kids to read. You learn something new every day!"
I don't think anyone disputes that teachers in our schools are expected to teach chidren to read. But I do think that children who have been read to, and who thus may be eager to learn to read, will likely be more successful at the process of learning to read.

Parents need to take an active interest in what and how their children are learning. Supporting the teachers, adding to their childrens' learning experiences, reading with them, actively discussing world events, schoolyard events, feelings, achievements, and challenges at home really helps children develop the critical thinking and verbalization that translate into both literacy and an eagerness for life-long learning.

An expectation that the schools are going to raise your children and provide them with all the life skill tools is an unachievable expectation.

That hour of homework you want for your Grade 1 children to put them on an even par with Asian students? Read with/to them. Talk with them about things that matter. Build things with them. Play with them. Discover things with them.

Turn off the TV and stay away from your computer during that hour of "homework" and pick up some books with them.

I am nearly finished my honours geology degree at a reputable university. With new education techniques being introduced to engage the student body more than traditional lectures I have had the chance to peer review a number of technical reports and essays. The work of my classmates, though usually scientifically sound, is rarely well written. English classes are required for first year science students, but they are not rigorous nor relevant to scientific writing. A friend of mine read out some excerpts from papers written for a first year psychology course. They were horrifying. Most of the authors were native English speakers.

I was lucky as I received exceptional training in high school. I'm not sure what the other schools are doing.

I had absolutely no problems with any of the links or finding a copy of the report.
Try going to info @ ccl-cca.ca and e-mail them or if your a real keener you can call them at 613-782-2959.
Very thought provoking article, shouldn't make people so defensive.As parents we should be concerned not critical. I thoroughly enjoyed this. Her articles always get me thinking.

This sad situation is no surprise to anyone involved in secondary or post-secondary education. All provincial governments have been eroding educational standards for more than thirty years. As long as governments are more concerned with "graduation rates" than with quality education, the situation will worsen, as it is now.

Phyllograptus has to look up the difference between "naval gazing" and navel gazing. The first is done by the navy or at the navy. As a professional translator from English to French, I have seen my share of communication horrors to make you wonder where do people learn English. Blaming a particular system (school or other) does not really solve the problem, though.

Ha, when I was young and lived in Asia, my parents never read me English text, they were not able to. So what? I have my MBA degree from Canada, and a CFA chart. Don't blame parents, you fail because you don't want to study.

Peter: define a "reputable university".
There are more than a few "reputable" universities in Canada...
Do you think that there is some hierarchy and that the students at less "reputable" universities have lesser skills? I know of many brilliant and capable students and faculty who aren't from "name brand" universities in Canada. And I have come across more than a few dummies who boast about where they went to school.

Hi Zoe,

There are more than a few reputable universities in Canada, you're right. What I meant was that I attend one of the universities that places well in global rankings of universities and is a well respected research institution. Not many schools in Canada are in that category. That being said, these rankings are controversial and I'm not a firm believer in them myself. Regardless, that reputation exists.

What I meant by saying that is the students at a "reputable university" are NOT very well trained in writing, which is odd, because apparently it is pretty difficult to get into my school. We have one of the highest entrance averages in the country, so you would think the students here could write. This notion is opposite to what you think I was saying. I have friends at a large number of schools all across Canada that aren't "name brand". I would say they are exceptional students and they would agree that their faculty are great too.

So in summary, no, I do not think there is a hierarchy of universities. Your assumption that I assume students at less "reputable" schools have lesser skills is unfounded and rather defensive.

Holding up the ELPE at Waterloo as a standard for English language proficiency is objectionable at best. When I went to Waterloo the ELPE was written during Frosh week. I am pretty sure I wrote it on less than 4 hours of sleep. I am sure others were hung over. The point was to get across the line, not write a masterpiece. Another fun test that week for those of us in engineering was the math proficiency test. Look into that one and you'll find statistics showing poor performance considering that the entrance math skills of most students are 80s all the way up to 100. As the author above does accurately point out, these tests are designed more as a selection process to see who needs extra help in the first semester. I'd be far more interested in the proficiency level of students exiting university than entering, and I wouldn't expect a math or engineering student to render anything other than a technical piece of writing. I leave it up to the arts faculty to best decide how to test their outgoing students, but one presumes a few essays are required before graduating and that SHOULD be sufficient.

@Ubasoldat: Great, you have an MBA and a CFA. You are not entitled to berate other people, so please don't.

I don't think there is anything wrong the the education system directly. We have a societal problem in North America where intellectualism is stigmatized. Spend any time in Europe and you'll realize that collectively people value education more. It is not considered uncool to be interested in learning.

it doesnt really matter as long as people go back to their own country to work.

I'm disappointed Kathy, your articles are generally insightful and fun to read but this one made me realise how one-sided they are... look up "the hurried infant" on the CBC (radio).

These English Proficiency Tests are just a way to discourage too many foreigners and new Canadians from attending university. I know a Queen's electrical engineering student from China who had an 80% average, who almost committed suicide because he couldn't pass the English Proficiency Test. Thing was, the university gave him no instruction in English; he was simply left to his own devices. Universities should not test what they don't teach.

To be honest, I've had Canadian friends who graduated from science programs whose English skills were shocking. I still remember feeling both surprised and a bit concerned when a physics grad I knew couldn't wrap his head around the pamphlet I had picked up for an author reading I was suggesting a group of us attend. Then it occurred to me - he (and many others, I'd imagine) had never been a reader in uni. He's probably not read a non-technical book since university, unless one was forced on him. It's entirely possible for a Canadian student to lack reading skills and still graduate from the sciences.

(Incidentally, I and these other students all graduated from Waterloo.)

Immigrants aren't "illiterate." They usually write their native language perfectly well! An inability to write well in a second (or third or fourth) language doesn't make someone illiterate.

wlt u lot is not know wot u on about innit critixissing us youths we are actuelly every talented at things but wee dunt needs 2 no how to be a shacespeer to prove our inteligect

The post above me is EXACTLY why people are failing the ELPE.
I took the ELPE not too long ago and passed.
From what I observed in the people that failed was not necessarily their ability or inability to write in English:
It was more based on the organization skills of their writing from paragraph and thesis formation, arguments, supporting facts/quotes, etc.

I was fortunate to go to a highschool that taught strictly upon writing organization but from tutoring English I know that not all Ontario highschools do.
Compared to my highschool English, other highschools were a JOKE.
A 90% student of one school could come to my school and fail English below 50% (it actually happened).
Despite constant complaints from the students at my highschool, I now appreciate what they did and believe that all Ontario highschools should get on that standard.
That is the reason for the ELPE, not necessarily to weed out immigrants not strong with English but also to bring students coming from Ontario highschools with lower standards up to par.

Literacy skills are in decline for several reasons.

1) Youngsters read a lot less. Any child who is a good reader will develop strong literacy skills.

2) Language teachers are trained to be ineffective. The try to teach skills like inference, and analysis etc, all of which destroys the pleasure of reading.

3) ESL instruction is woefully ineffective, again because of an emphasis on performance and correction, rather than encouraging the kids to use the language. Most ESL kids should be in the regular class and told not to watch Chinese videos.

3wut 5 u intit on abt woter s da ELPE I cud parse that standing no my hed.

Hey rtis is Richard W agiuab. I have a degree, how dare yu Franmces saay I am the resaon peple are faliing the ELPE. I have a degree u no

Frances: My IQ is 1,245. What's yours?

Hap Stokes, why would you hire graduate students to do hard labour? That is ridiculous and has nothing to do with the education they received in university.

Literacy is changing as methods of information are changing. Video games are a form of literacy, as is text, picture (comics) etc. This whole "in the old days, we could read and write and now our economy is going to suffer" will sound very ignorant in 10, no 5 years time.

@ Steve Kaufman:

"Literacy skills are in decline for several reasons.

1) Youngsters read a lot less."

Is this a fact? How do you know this? Read a lot less what? "To Kill a Mockingbird?" Did your grandfather say the same thing when the radio was first being used commercially? Statements like yours do not help this discussion at all.

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