More than 400,000 Quebecers are trapped in the spiral of great vulnerability
MONTREAL — About 425,000 Quebecers are trapped in a spiral of great vulnerability. That is to say, their socio-economic development is hampered by limited incomes combined with insufficient basic skills.
This is what emerges from a study published by the Literacy Foundation and conducted by Quebec economist Pierre Langlois.
While the poverty rate has been declining since 2015 in Canada, and even more so in Quebec, and the overall educational profile has improved, since the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of people in a situation of great vulnerability has risen again.
"With 6.13% of its population aged 15 and over in a situation of great vulnerability and an upward trend, the spiral of precariousness will hold a growing number of Quebecers prisoner," writes Pierre Langlois in his study.
"We can see it visually because we can see, in our respective neighbourhoods, that the food counter is a little more crowded than in the past," Langlois said in an interview with The Canadian Press. We also see it because, now, there are people who are pitching tents in certain fields, so we are starting to have visual symptoms of this crisis of vulnerability."
The disparities are particularly great in Montreal, where the highest index of great precariousness is in the more modest borough of Montreal-North with 6.89%, while the lowest corresponds to the Ville-Marie-Ile-des-Sœurs-Sud-Ouest sector, which has 3.99%.
Across the province, the municipalities of La Tuque and Salaberry-de-Valleyfield share the sad record with an index of 7.37%.
Soaring inflation among the causes
The economist blames galloping inflation, which has been eating into household budgets since 2021. However, the High Vulnerability Index operates on the basis of a vicious circle made up of its two reference values: income security and literacy. The logic is therefore that "faced with a difficult life situation, the individual does not have the financial resources to begin a process of training or upgrading his or her skills, and in doing so, he or she remains trapped in the spiral," explains Mr. Langlois.
And the problem is not to be taken lightly, because the question of literacy, the economist reminds us, is too often schematized. "People will make the shortcut, which is whether someone is illiterate or not," says Langlois. Then in the news, there are somewhat sensationalist sites that will rightly headline that one in two Quebecers is illiterate or functionally illiterate. But it's more complex than that."
Literacy levels take into account not only the ability to read and write, but also the ability to work with text and numerical data. As a result, there are more people with too little literacy than we think. Pierre Langlois' study reveals that 50.9% of Quebecers are below level 3 of PIAAC, the Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies.
In concrete terms, according to the Quebec Ministry of Education's grid, this means that these people are not or only slightly capable of "understanding dense or long texts and reacting to them adequately, understanding text structures and rhetorical devices, identifying, interpreting or evaluating one or more pieces of information and making adequate inferences, as well as performing operations involving multiple steps and selecting relevant data from of competing information to determine and formulate responses."
By comparison, Quebec, at 50.9%, is seven percentage points below Ontario in PIAAC Level 3 literacy. But Ontario itself lags far behind the top-ranked countries of Japan, the Netherlands and Finland, where the percentage of the population below Level 3 is below 40%.
A historic delay, but an improvement
Mr. Langlois nevertheless qualifies the case of Quebec. Because low literacy rates are more concentrated among Quebec seniors, due to a historical lag, the economist points out. He points out that in 1965, according to federal statistics at the time, one in two Quebecers had neither an elementary school diploma nor a high school diploma. Fortunately, "the generational mix means that we can hope that results will improve in Quebec," says Langlois.
According to him, only "structuring" external aid can break the vicious circle of great vulnerability. For households in a highly vulnerable situation that cannot obtain a first diploma, Mr. Langlois suggests forming "a shock team" linked to the Quebec employment department. Such a team would "provide these vulnerable households with an intervention plan that would support them financially and socially" so that these individuals could take the time to improve their basic skills and obtain the professional retraining that would get them out of the impasse.
Among the possible solutions, he proposes the implementation of an income support program, temporary access to social or affordable housing, community health and social pediatrics resources, and a basic skills upgrading program that would lead to a high school diploma or vocational training that would improve employability and salary expectancy.
One of the keys is also, according to him, the fight against school dropout. "All of this remains a Quebec national strategy, which must continue to be well funded," insists Pierre Langlois. He maintains that young people must be kept in school for as long as possible, "especially [the] boys."
"At the age of 16, there is a door that opens to vocational studies and often, it is boys who will take this path," he explains. And as soon as you fall into professional studies, literacy becomes something that is absent." He therefore maintains that vocational training in Quebec could certainly be improved.
"Obtaining a high school diploma is not the only determinant, but it is the first key to improving our results," says Pierre Langlois. Where we have a jump in literacy results is with college attendance."
The figures collected for his study show that a person with some form of secondary education in Quebec, in about 66% of cases, will still have literacy issues. "But when you add college attendance, you get results in the order of 40%," explains Mr. Langlois.
A percentage of about 40% of literacy at level 3 or higher places Quebec on a par with the best nations in the world.
"In a perfect world, if the entire Quebec population had at least some form of college education, we would probably have literacy results that would be similar to the best nations in the world," concludes the economist
This is what emerges from a study published by the Literacy Foundation and conducted by Quebec economist Pierre Langlois.
While the poverty rate has been declining since 2015 in Canada, and even more so in Quebec, and the overall educational profile has improved, since the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of people in a situation of great vulnerability has risen again.
"With 6.13% of its population aged 15 and over in a situation of great vulnerability and an upward trend, the spiral of precariousness will hold a growing number of Quebecers prisoner," writes Pierre Langlois in his study.
"We can see it visually because we can see, in our respective neighbourhoods, that the food counter is a little more crowded than in the past," Langlois said in an interview with The Canadian Press. We also see it because, now, there are people who are pitching tents in certain fields, so we are starting to have visual symptoms of this crisis of vulnerability."
The disparities are particularly great in Montreal, where the highest index of great precariousness is in the more modest borough of Montreal-North with 6.89%, while the lowest corresponds to the Ville-Marie-Ile-des-Sœurs-Sud-Ouest sector, which has 3.99%.
Across the province, the municipalities of La Tuque and Salaberry-de-Valleyfield share the sad record with an index of 7.37%.
Soaring inflation among the causes
The economist blames galloping inflation, which has been eating into household budgets since 2021. However, the High Vulnerability Index operates on the basis of a vicious circle made up of its two reference values: income security and literacy. The logic is therefore that "faced with a difficult life situation, the individual does not have the financial resources to begin a process of training or upgrading his or her skills, and in doing so, he or she remains trapped in the spiral," explains Mr. Langlois.
And the problem is not to be taken lightly, because the question of literacy, the economist reminds us, is too often schematized. "People will make the shortcut, which is whether someone is illiterate or not," says Langlois. Then in the news, there are somewhat sensationalist sites that will rightly headline that one in two Quebecers is illiterate or functionally illiterate. But it's more complex than that."
Literacy levels take into account not only the ability to read and write, but also the ability to work with text and numerical data. As a result, there are more people with too little literacy than we think. Pierre Langlois' study reveals that 50.9% of Quebecers are below level 3 of PIAAC, the Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies.
In concrete terms, according to the Quebec Ministry of Education's grid, this means that these people are not or only slightly capable of "understanding dense or long texts and reacting to them adequately, understanding text structures and rhetorical devices, identifying, interpreting or evaluating one or more pieces of information and making adequate inferences, as well as performing operations involving multiple steps and selecting relevant data from of competing information to determine and formulate responses."
By comparison, Quebec, at 50.9%, is seven percentage points below Ontario in PIAAC Level 3 literacy. But Ontario itself lags far behind the top-ranked countries of Japan, the Netherlands and Finland, where the percentage of the population below Level 3 is below 40%.
A historic delay, but an improvement
Mr. Langlois nevertheless qualifies the case of Quebec. Because low literacy rates are more concentrated among Quebec seniors, due to a historical lag, the economist points out. He points out that in 1965, according to federal statistics at the time, one in two Quebecers had neither an elementary school diploma nor a high school diploma. Fortunately, "the generational mix means that we can hope that results will improve in Quebec," says Langlois.
According to him, only "structuring" external aid can break the vicious circle of great vulnerability. For households in a highly vulnerable situation that cannot obtain a first diploma, Mr. Langlois suggests forming "a shock team" linked to the Quebec employment department. Such a team would "provide these vulnerable households with an intervention plan that would support them financially and socially" so that these individuals could take the time to improve their basic skills and obtain the professional retraining that would get them out of the impasse.
Among the possible solutions, he proposes the implementation of an income support program, temporary access to social or affordable housing, community health and social pediatrics resources, and a basic skills upgrading program that would lead to a high school diploma or vocational training that would improve employability and salary expectancy.
One of the keys is also, according to him, the fight against school dropout. "All of this remains a Quebec national strategy, which must continue to be well funded," insists Pierre Langlois. He maintains that young people must be kept in school for as long as possible, "especially [the] boys."
"At the age of 16, there is a door that opens to vocational studies and often, it is boys who will take this path," he explains. And as soon as you fall into professional studies, literacy becomes something that is absent." He therefore maintains that vocational training in Quebec could certainly be improved.
"Obtaining a high school diploma is not the only determinant, but it is the first key to improving our results," says Pierre Langlois. Where we have a jump in literacy results is with college attendance."
The figures collected for his study show that a person with some form of secondary education in Quebec, in about 66% of cases, will still have literacy issues. "But when you add college attendance, you get results in the order of 40%," explains Mr. Langlois.
A percentage of about 40% of literacy at level 3 or higher places Quebec on a par with the best nations in the world.
"In a perfect world, if the entire Quebec population had at least some form of college education, we would probably have literacy results that would be similar to the best nations in the world," concludes the economist
More than 400,000 Quebecers are trapped in the spiral of great vulnerability | News (lactualite.com)
