Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - February 19, 2014, Winnipeg, Manitoba C M Y K PAGE A4 A 4 WINNIPEG FREE PRESS, WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 19, 2014 MANITOBA winnipegfreepress. com Furniture . Windows . Doors & More 289 King Street . 204- 946- 0729 Winnipeg's best kept shopping secret. Mon- Fri 8: 30- 5: 00 . Sat 9: 00- 3: 00 . Closed Sun www. tagwarehouse. ca M New, factory seconds, and more. 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Visit our Website www. kayesauction. com for pictures & complete listing TERMS: Cash, Visa, Mastercard or Debit Paid in Full Day of Sale 5% Buyers Fee " SUBJECT TO ADDITIONS & DELETIONS" " Everything Sold As Is, Where Is," with no warranties implied or expressed KAYE'S AUCTIONS ( 204) 668- 0183 ( WPG.) www. kayesauctions. com UNRESERVED AUCTION SALE AT Kaye's Auction House 263 Stanley St. Thursday February 20th, 2014 at 7: 00 PM ( Viewing after 2: 00 PM Same Day of Sale Only) Psychology works for: P ANIC D ISORDER Manitoba Psychological Society Visit us at www. mps. ca THE news just keeps getting worse for the teaching and learning of mathematics in Manitoba. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development ( OECD) reported Tuesday analysis of its 2012 international math tests for 15- yearolds shows children of professionals and managers worldwide do better in math than do children of manual labourers. And that's true in both Canada and in Manitoba, the OECD data show. But Manitoba's children trail the national average of Canadian children regardless of what occupation their parent or parents hold - usually by significant margins. The release of those 2012 test scores two months ago set off shock waves in Manitoba, where our scores fell to eighth among provinces and perilously low to the bottom with Canada, while falling below the industrialized world's average. For the first time, in 2012, OECD asked the students writing the test to list their parents' occupations. OECD did not release similar data Tuesday for the reading and science testing it also conducted in 2012. Math scores among 15- year- olds in randomly selected schools have dropped in Manitoba every three years, each time the OECD conducts its testing among industrialized nations. The only profession in which Manitobans handle math near the Canadian level is in the kids of skilled agricultural, forestry and fishing workers, and even then, our kids are a tad lower. Such kids were third in Manitoba and fifth in Canada. Children of managers handle math better in Manitoba than do children of professionals - by a slim margin to be sure, but both well below the Canadian standard, in which children of professionals are tops. Otherwise, our rankings follow the Canadian rankings, though significantly below: technicians and associate professionals, clerical support workers, craft and related trade workers, service and sales workers, plant and machine operators and assemblers, and dead last, elementary occupations. OECD officials said Tuesday unemployed parents were not a possible response for students - instead, kids listed the last job their parents held. An aide to Education Minister James Allum said the province will not comment on the OECD report, but emphasized the Selinger government's commitment to smaller class sizes, a greater focus on teacher education in math, and the recent back- to- the- basics math curriculum. Manitoba Teachers' Society president Paul Olson dismissed the OECD report. Olson said other factors such as poverty and hunger are crucial to student success, and those factors vary from country to country. " It completely ignores the reality of kids' lives," Olson said. " The most important influence on student learning is teachers, once they get into the classroom." While there's generally a global pattern, OECD pointed out children of cleaners and factory workers in China did better in math than the children of professionals in the United States, and there were other deviations elsewhere. Some countries showed little or no difference in children's math levels. " Finland and Japan achieve high levels of performance by ensuring that the children of parents who work in elementary occupations are given the same education opportunities and the same encouragement as the children of professionals," said the OECD report. " The bottom line: While there is a strong relationship between parents' occupations and student performance, the fact that students in some education systems, regardless of what their parents do for a living, outperform children of professionals in other countries shows that it is possible to provide children of factory workers the same highquality education opportunities that children of lawyers and doctors enjoy." nick. martin@ freepress. mb. ca JOIN THE CONVERSATION What does Manitoba need to do to get out of the basement of math marks? Go to winnipegfreepress. com and add your comments to the conversation Parents' work equates to skills? Kids' math abilities affected by it: study By Nick Martin SCAN PAGE TO SEE CHARTS AND TO TEST YOUR MATH SKILLS M ORDEN - Anna Repina, who arrived in Canada less than two months ago from Odessa in southern Ukraine, doesn't keep just one online blog: She keeps three. One is a travel blog, another is a blog about her experience with the immigration process to help others, and the third is about her new life in Canada. " I describe every day we spend in Morden, my impressions of everything, and I try to be honest," she said. That includes the challenge of keeping a budget, what things cost in Canada and the weather, which surprisingly hasn't phased her or husband Roman Plokhotniuk. The name of the blog? Love Canada. It's at lovecanada. od. ua, written in Russian, but a Google translation will pop up with a search. It gets up to 250 unique visitors per day. That sums up how the couple feel about their new home. While people here say recent legislation from both the federal and provincial governments has stifled immigration to rural Manitoba, some people like Anna and Roman are still squeezing in under an initiative started by the City of Morden. But it's very tough. " For every hundred applicants we receive, we probably accept one. It's like winning a lottery," said Cheryl Digby, Morden community development officer and the person in charge of Morden's program. The small Prairie city, 104 kilometres southwest of Winnipeg, took the lead because it was afraid of losing its manufacturing sector to the United States. There aren't enough workers to support its manufacturing base, and efforts to attract labour from Winnipeg have had little success. The program tries to work through new legislation recently introduced to the Provincial Nominee Program ( PNP). One change is the NDP government's Bill 22, the Worker Recruitment and Protection Act, introduced in 2010, that prohibits private immigration consultants from finding jobs for prospective immigrants. The government believed the system left immigrants open to abuses. To get around Bill 22, a Morden government official takes over the consultant's work of trying to match immigrants with jobs. There is no fee attached, and the government official is considered impartial, so that gets around Bill 22 restrictions. The other obstacle is the Harper government's new higher English language requirements that began in 2012. The problem is the English standards favour professionals such as lawyers and engineers, whose skills might fit a large urban centre more than a small rural community. What's really needed in a place like Morden is tradespeople. The Morden program can't get around higher English requirements, but it can do a better job of screening applicants to find those most likely to stay in Morden. The process includes an hour- long Skype interview. Morden has also appointed a volunteer panel that includes people such as a health- care worker, an educator and a recent immigrant, to assess applicants for their adaptability. For example, Roman fit the need for machinists. In Ukraine, he managed a sunflower- seed oil plant. He is now employed by Decor Cabinets in Morden. Decor is one of the big employers of immigrants in the region. Up to 75 per cent of Decor's 420 employees were hired through PNP. Morden also requires all applicants approved by the panel do an exploratory visit of their community and meet with prospective employers before making a final decision. This adds another cost to the applicant. More details are on its website ( mordenmb. ca). Anna, 27, and Roman, 30 - they were born on the same date, Jan. 19 - passed their International English Language Testing System exam, which can be taken in a college or university in their home country for a fee, but it wasn't easy. Anna said people in Ukraine have been taught English through the school system for the past 15 years, starting as early as kindergarten. But that won't get you into Canada. She continued to take English- language courses in university. Roman took online courses and had a private instructor provide him with lessons once or twice a week. They are exceptional candidates, but that's what it takes now for rural communities to land immigrants, Digby said. " We're in our infancy," Digby said of the Morden program. Just 13 families have arrived so far. But many more are in the pipeline. It is now approving about one family per week. That's not a lot for the region, but it's a beginning. The process can take up to two years for immigrants to clear all the red tape once they've been accepted. The reputation of the program is spreading. " Job offers are increasing and interest is picking up abroad. There's a lot of good buzz," said Shelly Voth, Morden's immigration co- ordinator. Meanwhile, the new arrivals from Odessa are over the moon about their immigration. There has not been a weekend since they arrived when they haven't been invited into someone's home. " I'm impressed with Decor," added Roman. " Compared to Ukraine factories, it's very modern; there are very good managers, and everyone smiles and is ready to help. I have everything I want." bill. redekop@ freepress. mb. ca Morden opens its arms Program welcomes immigrant workers Manitoba and its provincial nominee program used to have the edge in recruiting new workers for the province's smaller centres. Rural reporter Bill Redekop takes a close- up look at the state of the program almost 17 years after its inception. ' For every hundred applicants we receive, we probably accept one. It's like winning a lottery' - Cheryl Digby, Morden community development officer RUTH BONNEVILLE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Anna Repina and Roman Plokhotniuk left Ukraine for a new life in Morden, thanks to a local immigration initiative. BILL REDEKOP A_ 04_ Feb- 1 9- 14_ FP_ 01. indd A4 2/ 18/ 14 6: 52: 13 PM ;