An international study that assesses 15-year-old students shows Saskatchewan's education system is declining in quality in three key areas.
While issues like gender identity and teachers’ salaries have dominated the recent debate over schooling in Saskatchewan, the quality of education appears to be dropping.
The latest Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) scores for Canada prompted concern late last year when it was revealed that national scores had sharply dropped in reading and math.
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The testing, which usually happens every three years but was bumped from 2021 to 2022 due to the pandemic, assesses the abilities of 15-year-old students in reading, math and science.
In Saskatchewan, the mean scores in all three disciplines were not only starkly lower than the national averages in 2018, but they dropped further in 2022 results than the Canadian scores.
This year’s PISA study notes that low response rates in seven out of 10 Canadian provinces, also attributed to the pandemic, yielded results that fell short of PISA technical standards. But Saskatchewan was not among those provinces, so the results for this province stand up for better or worse.
When it comes to reading, Saskatchewan test scores dropped by 15 points from 499 to 484, a steeper decline than the Canadian average of 13 points from 520 to 507. PISA equates a 15-point drop to the elimination of a year of learning, so it’s a significant decline.
In math, Saskatchewan recorded its biggest plummet, 17 points from 485 to 468, compared to the 15-point drop in Canada from 512 to 497 that has caused so much anxiety. The decline in math and reading in both Canada and Saskatchewan reflected global trends attributable to the pandemic.
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In the field of science, Canada’s scores dropped a minimal three points from 518 to 515, while Saskatchewan scores fell by seven points from 501 to 494.
Compared to other provinces in 2022, Saskatchewan ranked second last in math, third worst in reading and middle of the pack in science.
Our next-door neighbour, Alberta, topped the nation in reading (41 points better than Saskatchewan) and math (36 points better) and placed second in science (40 points better). So you can’t credibly shrug off Saskatchewan’s results as a Prairie thing.
Saskatchewan’s scores in math and science are closer to those from the city of Almaty in Kazakhstan than they are to our neighbouring province. Cue the jokes about Borat as our next education minister.
The good news is that Canada still ranks among the tops in all three areas among the 81 countries that took part in the testing. The bad news is that Saskatchewan is clearly dragging the Canadian averages down.
And, sadly, the most recent results cannot be dismissed as a one-time decline — it’s quite clearly part of a downward trend, particularly in Saskatchewan.
Canada’s reading score in 2000 was 534; Saskatchewan’s was just slightly below at 529. While Canada’s score has dropped 27 points since then, Saskatchewan took a 45-point tailspin — or the equivalent of losing three years of learning, according to PISA’s definition.
When it comes to math, Saskatchewan has experienced a greater drop in a shorter time period. In 2003, Saskatchewan scored 516 in math, below Canada’s score of 532. While Canada’s decline of 35 points is concerning, Saskatchewan’s 48-point plummet represents the third worst among provinces.
Science is slightly less concerning, with declines since 2006 of 16 points for Canada and 23 points for Saskatchewan.
So far this century, the quality of education in this province in what many would consider the three key areas appears to be eroding precipitously.
We’re going to hear much in the near future from a teachers’ union contemplating job action on how spending that fails to keep up with the growth of students and overcrowded classrooms is taking a toll on education in Saskatchewan.
The latest PISA results will make it difficult for anyone to argue that Saskatchewan’s education system is headed in the right direction.
The scores also make it tough to justify the amount of time and effort the Saskatchewan Party government spent on restricting name and pronoun changes at schools and limiting sex education.
Resurrecting the quality of education should be considered a far greater priority.
Phil Tank is the digital opinion editor at the Saskatoon StarPhoenix.
ptank@postmedia.com
twitter.com/thinktankSK
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