Gender gap emerges in school readiness

Toronto Star- Editorials and Opinion, Nov. 26, 2003. Page A28

A report released yesterday by the Canadian Education Statistics Council entitled Education Indicators in Canada found that boys may be at a disadvantage to girls when entering school. Here is an edited excerpt:

The developmental stages of early childhood are complex, multidimensional and interdependent. For example, the ability to participate in age-appropriate conversations is in part dependent on a child's oral acuity, or physical development. For any one child, his or her stage of early childhood development can influence how prepared he or she is to enter school .

Long-term success in school, as well as later in life, may be influenced by what a child achieves in the first years of school. The first years in school lay the foundation in reading and writing, mathematics and science concepts.

James Heckman, Nobel Prize winner in economics, has claimed that "all the available evidence points to the great long-run value of raising the skill levels and motivation of the very young. Research in psychology and economics indicates that skill begets skill; early learning promotes later learning. Investment in the education and training of the very young earns a far higher return than investment placed in a teenager or middle-age adult."

In recent years, all orders of government in Canada have turned their attention to the question of whether children are ready to enter school fully prepared for the academic and social challenges they will face. ...

Once they enter Grade 1, children are expected to begin learning to read and write. Access to books and pencils and language development during the pre-school years help prepare children for the reading and writing challenges they will confront in Grade 1.

Although the majority of 4-year-olds, according to their parents, looked at books, magazines or comics at home, by themselves, a gender gap emerged: 79 per cent of girls looked at books daily, compared with 64 per cent of boys.

Young children develop an appetite for reading when they are surrounded by reading material, have the opportunity to see adults reading as a habit and are read to at a very early age. This seems to have been the case for a majority of young children in 1998-1999: Two-thirds of 4- and 5-year-olds had an adult who read to them every day .

However, this means that about a third will enter school without this high level of familiarity with books and printed material.

There was no difference between boys and girls in their access to an adult who read to them daily. However, there is a difference in terms of parents encouraging their young child to write: 65 per cent of girls' parents encouraged them to write daily, compared with 51 per cent for boys.

Canadian Education Statistics Council Link

Read the complete report

Statistics Canada's Centre for Education Statistics develops surveys, provides statistics and conducts research and analysis relevant to current issues in education, training and literacy. Its program is developed in consultation with the Canadian Education Statistics Council (a partnership of Statistics Canada and the Council of Ministers of Education, Canada) and other education stakeholders.

Education indicators in Canada: Report of the Pan-Canadian Education Indicators Program