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‘A’ for education, ‘D’ for doctorate

Conference Board ranks Canada 2nd in education, but dead last in PhDs

Canada has earned top marks for its education and skills performance, according to a Conference Board of Canada ranking. Canada remains second to Finland in overall education and skills outcomes, but closed the gap by improving on two key indicators.

The Board says between 2006 and 2007, working-age Canadians who graduated from high-school increased by a full percentage point to 86.6 per cent. The top performer in this indicator, the United States, only increased its proportion by 0.1 percentage point, to 87.9 per cent.

In addition, says the Board, Canada’s proportion of graduates from science, math, computer science and engineering disciplines significantly improved. While it still earns only a ‘C’ grade on this indicator, it is an improvement from last year’s ‘D.’

Canada gets a ‘D’ grade when it comes to Ph.D. graduates — three and a half times below Sweden, the leading country on this indicator. In fact out of the 17 countries ranked Canada ranked last on this indicator.

The Canadian Press

Read the full report here

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