Immigrant Children Vs. Native Canadian Academic Performance
There are approximately 200,000 people migrate to Canada each year. About 240,000- 265,000 immigrants had been accepted in Canada last 2010.One third of the total immigrants’ ages 25 years and below.
Compared to adult, immigrant children were the ones facing a great challenge in terms of adapting to their new environment. The atmosphere in their new school as well as the curriculum is one of the new challenges they have to face. Another adjustment they have to make is the cultural values and the behaviour of the children they will be interacting with which is far different from the culture they grew up with.
How immigrants cope?
The government of Canada develops a special program known as the SWIS (Settlement Workers in Schools) which orients the immigrants to the system of Ontario schools. One of the goals is also to provide referrals to various community support services that will help them settle successfully.
Immigrants and education
Most of the parents opted to migrate to Canada with one ultimate goal- to provide a bright future to their children. Canada is known in having one of the best educational systems to offer. According to Paul Cappon, president and CEO of the Canadian Council on Learning “The strength of Canada’s education system is that we have one of world’s most equitable systems because we do a better job of integrating immigrant students than other countries” The students are performing well in school in the aspect of reading, math, and science regardless of their socio-economic status.
How are immigrant children doing in school as compared to native Canadians?
A survey and a Peabody picture vocabulary test were conducted by the NLSCY that showed children’s performance varies on their economic status. Children who are ranked above middle class tend to perform higher than that that is ranked below the middle class.
Another reason is that the children’s performance varies on the parent’s mother tongue. Children whose mother tongue is neither English nor French faced significant disadvantage in the first years of school, in which their performance in reading and mathematics are 20% lower and their writing skills are 30% lower compared to children with Canadian-born parents. Their performance however would improve upon reaching the age of 10-11, and they would perform as well as their native Canadian counterparts.
Immigrant children in Canada who have been trailing behind their native Canadian counterparts would make an effort to make up for the gap between them in the academic performance. They have managed to take away the gap between them and the native Canadians in their language skills as well as their school performance in the growing years of their stay in the country.
It would show that setting a good foundation in the yearly years of their lives is essential in equipping them with the skills they will need as they progress through school and later on to the real world.
