Education Gaps

[Crawford Kilian]

The Tuesday Globe and Mail ran a story on a new UNICEF study of education
success in the 24 OECD countries. A news release and the full report are
available as PDF files at http://www.unicef-icdc.org/presscentre/newsroom/

The news release points out that countries allow gaps to form between
their average and low-achieving students. In some countries, including
Canada, the gap is relatively narrow; in others, like the US, the gap is
quite wide. (This is not always a good thing, however; the gap is narrow
in Portugal, but Portugal comes dead last in overall achievement.) 

Canada comes in 4th overall, led by South Korea, Japan, and Finland. The
US is in 18th place.

Crawford Kilian
Capilano College
North Vancouver BC
http://www.capcollege.bc.ca/dept/cmns/crofpers.html