Report and recommendations : National strategy for early literacy

While Canada’s Constitution (specifically, Section 93 of the British North America Act, now known as the Constitution Act, 1867) assigns the power to make “Laws in relation to Education” to the provincial legislatures “exclusively”, there is a wide-spread acknowledgement of a national interest in the provision of educational opportunities, and that the national government has a role to play in cre [...] National Strategy for Early Literacy process To facilitate the creation of a pan-Canadian consensus on what should be Canada’s targets for literacy achievement, and on the actions needed to achieve these targets, a range of education, literacy and public interest organizations came together to lead the National Strategy for Early Literacy (NSEL) initiative. [...] These broad definitions expand on the definition of literacy that is used in the major international surveys of literacy skills (e.g., the International Adult Literacy and Skills Survey and the Adult Literacy and Life Skills Survey) conducted by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and Statistics Canada. [...] Importance of early language and literacy environment The first three years of a child’s life have enormous impact on the development of basic language and cognitive skills and lay the foundation for early literacy development. [...] The language and literacy environment of the child’s home and early learning and child care (ELCC) settings are therefore strong determinants of early language and literacy skills.