Spotlight
Graduation Rates Rise Again
Transcript of video
Premier McGuinty:
I'm always humbled and honoured when I'm referred to as the education Premier. We've been working so hard to get class sizes down, and test scores up, and graduation rates up, and we've created 180,000 spaces so far in our colleges and universities and apprenticeship programs. This September, we're going to add on another 20,000 more spaces in our colleges and universities so that any Ontarian who wants to, and has the ability to do so, to go on to college or university or an apprenticeship program, we want to make sure there are spaces available for you.
I want to talk just for a moment about the graduation rate, because it's gone up, Leona tells me, by 11% since 2003. We're now at 79% of our young people who are graduating from high school. That's a big deal. That's a really big deal. Our target is 85%. We're going to work as hard as we can to get there, but we can't get there unless you hang in there, and work as hard as you can, and apply yourselves and persevere, and remain diligent when it comes to your studies.
I think it was Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who steered the United States of America through a very difficult economic period, who said, well we can't always build the future for our youth, we can build our youth for the future. And that's what we're doing. That's what our programs all about. It's not just a matter of helping you get ahead. If you get ahead, we get ahead. It's a matter of enlightened self-interest. That's why our government will continue to do the things that we've done for the first six – seven years now – to find new ways, exciting ways, to engage young people in learning and in skills development.
At the end of the day, we need a strong workforce here in Ontario. We need to be able to compete with the very best in the world. And that's why we look to you. That's why we invest in you.
|
