Canadian Parents On School And Education
Half of the parents surveyed in this study (51%) say their child does their homework immediately after school - with many doing their homework in busy household areas like the kitchen (45%) or dining room (22%). Further, half of parents (50%) also say their child does their homework in noisy environments; with things such as other people talking (20%), a television playing (19%), or music (11%) providing a noise-filled work environment. And while one in ten (11%) parents say their child is doing their homework alone, most (82%) are either are doing their homework with a parent nearby (50%) or with a parent beside him/her (32%). On average half of parents surveyed (51%) spend 1 to 60 minutes a week providing their children with homework support - when stretched over a week this equates to an average of less than 10 minutes a day - even though 94% of parents surveyed are confident in helping their child with their homework.
For the most part, nine in ten parents surveyed (92%) believe their child is meeting (53%) or exceeding (39%) the scholastic expectations for their grade level. And when considering different school subjects - many parents say math is the most liked (34%) and most disliked (27%) subject for their child, though more say their child likes it than dislikes it.
Of parents surveyed, on average, they say it is appropriate to start doing early learning activities when a child is 3 years of age. However, parents' opinions about this issue are widespread.
Among the early learning activities parents say they have done with their children before they started school, the most popular activities were reading with their child (63%) and using reading (42%) and math (39%) activity books. When considering the primary goal for their children's education, the largest portion (29%) of parents surveyed first mention, unaided, that the primary goal is to attend college or university, followed by getting a good/successful job (13%), and attending a secondary institution (11%).
When totalling all mentions made by the parents surveyed after being asked what is the primary goal for their children's education, the largest portion (36%) mention "attending college or university", followed by "to be happy in life" (27%), to "get a good/successful job" (23%), and gain "life skills/become a valuable member of society" (21%).
And, when the parents surveyed are asked to rank 7 education goals according to which ones are most important: "developing self management and life skills" (29%) gets ranked highest, followed by "developing good reading/literacy skills" (26%), "developing interpersonal skills" (15%), "developing good study habits" (14%), "achieving good grades" (10%), "developing good math/numerical skills" (4%), and lastly "developing recreational/leisure skills" (less than 1%).
The majority of parents surveyed (88%) say their children will be involved in at least one after school activity this school year - on average respondents say their child will participate in about 2 activities this school year. Sports are the preferred after school activity, with team sports being the activity of choice for more than half (57%) and individual sports for another 43%. But, almost one-third of children (31%) will be involved in music. Parents surveyed, on average, think their child will spend 4.6 hours a week doing after school activities, but the majority of parents (89%) feel they can manage this time well.
These are the findings of an Ipsos-Reid/Kumon survey that was conducted nationally in Canada among 1040 Canadians who have children aged 6 to 14 years of age that attend public schools and do not have learning disabilities or special education needs. The study was fielded from August 19-27th 2004. With a sample of this size, the results are considered accurate to within 1773.0 percentage points percentage points, 19 times out of 20, of what they would have been had this entire population been polled.
Please open the attached PDF to view the full factum and detailed tables.
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For more information on this news release, please contact:
John Wright
Senior Vice-President
Ipsos-Reid Public Affairs
(416) 324-2900Or
Sandy Franco
Public Relations Manager
Kumon Math & Reading Centres
416-490-1434 or 1.800.266.6681 ext. 279
