Saskatchewan gets poor grade in education efficiency

The cost of education continues to rise in Canada, but the authors of a new study say Saskatchewan is not getting good bang for its public investment.

A study by the Johnson Shoyama Graduate School of Public Policy at the University of Saskatchewan said the province ranks ninth out of 10 when it comes to how efficient the province is with its public dollars. Only Manitoba ranked lower.

The study looked at the average spending for each student measured against student outcomes with the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) test results.

Saskatchewan spends the second-most per student, but has the second-worst student performance.

“The highest-spending provinces, Quebec, Saskatchewan and Manitoba, are not necessarily achieving the best results and the lowest-spending provinces, British Columbia and New Brunswick, are not necessarily achieving the worst PISA results,” the study noted.

Associate professor Haizhen Mou, who worked on the study, suggested the provincial government should pay closer attention to incremental spending to maximize value for its investment, and further investigate the factors driving academic outcomes.

Prince Edward Island was the most-efficient province with its public dollars.

The report said that by applying the P.E.I. model, an estimated $7.5 billion could have been saved on education across Canada in 2015.