TORONTO—20 per cent of Ontario parents are concerned their child has lost out on valuable learning due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and that their child’s school has no plan to catch them up, according to a new Leger poll of Canadian parents of kids in K-12 conducted for the Fraser Institute, an independent, non-partisan Canadian public policy think-tank.
“Ontario parents—and indeed parents across Canada—are rightly worried that the school closures and education disruptions as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic could have long lasting impacts on their child’s learning,” said Paige MacPherson, associate director of education policy at the Fraser Institute.
The new Leger poll found that 41 per cent of parents in Ontario think their child is behind a lot as a result of COVID-19 disruptions, with 20 per cent of parents concerned that the school has no plan to make up for lost learning.
Across Canada, 17 per cent of parents similarly expressed that their child was behind a lot and that the school had no plan to catch them up.
“A significant number of Ontario parents say their kids have fallen behind academically, and their child’s school has no plan to catch them up,” MacPherson said.
“If educators and school administrators fail to address these gaps, the impacts of this learning loss will not be short-lived for Canadian children.”
The poll was conducted by Leger for the Fraser Institute, using Leger’s online panel. A total of n=1204 online surveys were conducted. 1000 interviews were conducted with a representative sampling of parents across Canada, and an additional 100 interviews were conducted in Alberta and B.C. Interviews were conducted from Nov. 12 to Nov. 21, 2021. If the data were collected through a random sample, the margin of error would be ±2.8 per cent, 19 times out of 20.
Media Contact:
Paige MacPherson, Associate Director, Education, Fraser Institute
To arrange media interviews or for more information, please contact:
Drue MacPherson, Fraser Institute
drue.macpherson@fraserinstitute.org
The Fraser Institute is an independent Canadian public policy research and educational organization with offices in Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto, and Montreal and ties to a global network of 86 think-tanks. Its mission is to measure, study, and communicate the impact of competitive markets and government intervention on the welfare of individuals. To protect the Institute’s independence, it does not accept grants from governments or contracts for research. Visit fraserinstitute.org.
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