The Pan-Canadian Education Indicators Program (PCEIP) is an ongoing initiative of CESC to provide a set of statistical measures on education systems in Canada. The goal of the program is to provide consistent and high-quality information on education for all of Canada to support informed decision-making, policy formulation and program development.
Education Indicators in Canada: Report of the Pan-Canadian Education Indicators Program 2003, the third edition of this report, updates information and provides several additional indicators. This report is also available electronically on the website of Statistics Canada.
Updated tables, released in June and December 2004, are available on the Statistics Canada website.
Although indicators show trends and uncover interesting questions, they cannot by themselves provide explanations or permit conclusions to be drawn. Additional research will always be required to diagnose the causes of problems and suggest solutions. The aim of this report is to stimulate thinking and promote debate on education issues.
The indicators are divided into five chapters.
Chapter A
A Portrait of the School-Age Population, focuses on demographic trends for the population aged 5 to 24, and considers indicators of cultural diversity, family background, and low income.
Chapter B
Financing Education Systems, looks at trends in public and private expenditures on education, examines the distribution of capital and current expenditures, and reports on student debt.
Chapter C
Elementary-Secondary Education, includes indicators on pre-school children, enrolment, graduation, human resources and school characteristics at the elementary-secondary level. Other topics covered are information and communications technology and student achievement.
Chapter D
Postsecondary Education, provides similar information at the postsecondary level, looking at participation and graduation rates for trade-vocational /apprenticeship programs, colleges and universities, as well as human resources at colleges and universities. It also covers research and development, adult education and training, and the educational attainment of the working-age population.
Chapter E
Transitions and Outcomes, looks at transitions from high school to
postsecondary education and work, and provides information on labour market
outcomes by level of education.
Structure of education and
training in Canada
In Canada, education is the responsibility of the ten provinces and three
territories. While educational structures and institutions across the
country are similar in many ways, they have been developed by each jurisdiction
to respond to the particular circumstances, geographical situation, and
historical and cultural heritage of the population they serve. This appendix
describes the various structures and organization of education and training
in Canada today.
Other Appendices
Data sources used in this publication
Calculation of revenues and expenditures for each jurisdiction
– Elementary and secondary education
Basic reference statistics
List of postsecondary institutions surveyed by the Centre for Education Statistics at Statistics Canada to generate the enrolment, finance, and educator data presented in PCEIP 2003
The next PCEIP report is tentatively scheduled for 2005. Program priorities include:
- developing a Web site for PCEIP that will provide electronic access
to
more detailed underlying databases and make updated information
readily available; - updating existing indicators as new data become available;
- continuing research to refine and select data for the remaining
indicators; - improving timeliness and cross-jurisdictional comparability;
- consulting with provincial and territorial governments and other
education stakeholders to increase the relevance and usefulness of the
PCEIP
Ordering information (printed version)
Education Indicators in Canada: Report of the
Pan-Canadian Education Indicators Program 2003, Catalogue No. 81-582-XPE,
is available at a price of CDN $70.00.
Contact Client Services, Culture, Tourism and the Centre for Education
Statistics, Statistics Canada, Ottawa, Ontario, K1A 0T6
(telephone: (613) 951-7608; toll free at 1 800 307-3382;
by fax at (613) 951-9040; or e-mail: educationstats@statcan.ca).
The following additional shipping charges apply for delivery outside Canada:
United States CDN $6.00, Other countries CDN $10.00
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