‘No fail’ policies need to go, new poll on Canadian education says

A new poll, from SecondStreet.org, conducted by Leger, suggests many Canadians support the idea of ditching a "no fail" policy in the public education system. (Pexels/Tima Miroshnichenko)

A new survey suggests that more Canadians believe the nation’s education system is headed in the wrong direction and a return to more “traditional responses” toward unruly students may be needed.

The SecondStreet.org poll, conducted by public opinion research firm Leger, asked Canadians about their views on the public K-12 school system.

Fifty-three per cent of respondents felt the public school system has gone in the wrong direction for the past 20 years. Only 23 per cent of Canadians felt otherwise, while the rest had no opinion.

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Other polling from the firm, conducted in 2024, showed Canadians were most concerned about student discipline and accountability, the priorities of school curriculums and the methods by which some subjects are taught.

SecondStreet.org, in the newest survey, explored those feelings and found that 72 per cent of Canadians are in support of a return to more traditional responses.

Those include sending misbehaving students to the principal’s office, suspending them or using other measures.

There’s even more support (74 per cent) for teachers to have greater power over student performance, such as reducing marks for assignments if they are handed in late.

Seventy-seven per cent of respondents felt all schools should abandon policies that advance the grade level of students regardless of performance, known as a “no fail” policy.

“The poll shows Canadians seem to want to go back to the way things were in the K-12 system 20 years ago,” said SecondStreet.org research director Bacchus Barua.

SecondStreet.org said, “most Canadians believed students should be able to demonstrate their ability to understand core subject matter (reading, writing, math) in order to move on to the next grade.”

The survey also found that 56 per cent of Canadians think schools should also return to the traditional methods to teach students core subjects.

“Support for a back-to-basics approach was highest in Ontario (60 per cent) and lowest in Quebec (50 per cent,” SecondStreet.org said.

“A notable difference in support for back-to-basics approaches was observed between households with children.”

The survey was conducted online by Leger using a sample size of 1,659 Canadian adults between Feb. 27 and March 1, 2026.

The margin of error of a survey of this size would be +/- 2.4 per cent, 19 times out of 20.