COLUMN: Think Again – Manitoba’s academic decline is unacceptable

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This article was published 09/01/2024 (879 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Student academic achievement is heading downhill. That’s what the latest Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) report shows.

Over the last 20 years, there has been a steady decline in the math, reading, and science skills of Canadian students.

To make matters worse, Manitoba scored significantly below the Canadian average in each of these areas. In math, which was the primary focus of the latest PISA assessment, Manitoba tied with Nova Scotia for third last among Canadian provinces.

While this might, at first glance, seem like an improvement from our dead last position in 2018, all it means is that the skills of Manitoba students declined slightly less rapidly than the skills of students in Saskatchewan and Newfoundland & Labrador. This is not something to boast about.

Right on cue, the usual actors began making excuses. The president of the Manitoba Teachers’ Society tweeted that instead of worrying about the PISA results, we should focus on the impact of seven years of chronic underfunding. In other words, student achievement would improve if the province spent more money on education.

However, Manitoba already spends the second highest amount per student among the ten provinces and has little to show for it. If more money was the solution, Manitoba students would be near the top in Canada, not scraping the bottom.

There is an old saying that you should work smarter, not harder. Instead of demanding more from teachers, the province should empower them to teach more effectively. For example, there is overwhelming evidence that systematic phonics instruction is the best way to help students learn how to read.

That is what the Ontario Human Rights Commission discovered when it investigated this issue. Its Right to Read report concluded that students were being shortchanged by the “three-cueing” approach to reading instruction that encouraged students to guess the meaning of unfamiliar words rather than sound them out. The report was so compelling that Ontario changed its reading curriculum to put more emphasis on phonics. Manitoba should do the same.

Research also shows that students benefit from knowledge-rich classroom environments. In fact, there is a strong causal relationship between background knowledge and reading comprehension. This means that teachers should do everything they can to help students acquire lots of subject-specific content knowledge.

In addition, if students don’t know key names and dates in history class, they can’t contextualize those events and think critically about their implications today. For example, no one can give an informed opinion about whether schools and other buildings should be named after Sir John A. Macdonald unless they know some basic facts about his life and the historical context of his time as prime minister.

As for math, students fall behind when teachers fail to help them master essential skills. Students need to memorize basic math facts such as multiplication tables. They also need to learn the standard algorithms for addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division.

If students do not acquire these basic skills, they will struggle in math, particularly when they encounter complex math problems. Just as a pianist needs to practice scales before playing one of Beethoven’s sonatas, students must commit basic math facts to memory before trying to solve complex algebraic equations.

One of the best things we can do is reject, once and for all, the notion that “inquiry learning” is the best way for students to learn. Teachers must reclaim their proper role as subject-matter experts who take charge of the learning process. Most students do not benefit when teachers are downgraded to mere guides on the side.

Manitoba’s academic decline is unacceptable. It is time we did something different.

Michael Zwaagstra is a high school teacher and a Steinbach city councillor. He can be reached at mzwaagstra@shaw.ca.