Nunavut spends more than others on education, but has fewer grads

By the numbers: Statistics Canada graph showing Nunavut has fewer college and university grads than the rest of Canada though it does have more college or trade diploma grads than other Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, or OECD, countries. The OECD is a group of 35 democratic countries which believes in the market economy and world trade.

Statistics Canada just released data that holds more bad news for Nunavut’s education system Dec. 15.

The territory had Canada’s lowest percentage of high school graduates within its working age population, despite spending, proportionately, the most amount of money on education in 2015, the new report said.

And Nunavut is the only region in Canada whose high school graduation falls below—well below—the average for countries in the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, or OECD, StatsCan said.

The OECD is a group of 35 countries that identify as democratic and believe in the market economy and world trade.

According to StatsCan, 90 per cent of Canadians complete at least high school.

That’s 12 per cent higher than the OECD average of 78 per cent.

But Nunavut lags far behind the OECD average, with just over half, or 54 per cent, of the territory’s population between 25 and 64, finishing high school.

British Columbia had the highest average at 93 per cent, the report said.

“Higher levels of education are generally linked to improved employment prospects,” said the report, called “Education Indicators in Canada: An International perspective, 2015.”

For example, the employment rate of Canadians without at least a high school education stood at 55 per cent in 2015, while those with a high school education enjoyed an employment rate of over 80 per cent.

According to the Government of Nunavut’s statistics bureau, the territory’s employment rate as of Oct. 1 stood at 56 per cent: nearly half of all Nunavummiut of working age don’t have a job.

The StatsCan report also compared the resources aimed at education, measured by a percentage of the gross domestic product, or GDP.

On average, Canada spent six per cent of its GDP on education, while the OECD average was just over five per cent in 2013, StatsCan said.

But Nunavut spent 8.8 per cent on education—the highest rate of spending in Canada and 75 per cent higher than the OECD average.

Alberta devoted the lowest amount of resources, just over four per cent of its GDP in 2013, the report said.