OECD Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development

OECD Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development: What prompted this unbanker-like outpouring from TD Economics was a survey of essential skills by the OECD Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development ranking 24 industrial countries on basic literacy and numeracy. Canadas literacy score was a mediocre 11th. Its numeracy score was a below-average 4th. The most disheartening thing of all was that both scores had dropped since the OECDs last survey in 2003, according to The Star. Seven years ago, the bank issued a national call for action, urging policy-makers and corporate leaders to make literacy a national priority. It is critical that everyone understands the writing is on the wall, the banks deputy chairman, Frank McKenna, said at the time. Improving literacy outcomes must be a national priority and The word depressing pops up three times on the first page of the Toronto Dominion Banks latest report on Canadian literacy. Troubling, worrying, alarming and abysmal also figure prominently in the nine-page analysis. I waited 10 years for the new numbers and I was really hoping we would see progress, said Craig Alexander, the banks chief economist. It turns out we are losing ground. We desperately need to do better. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.