Percentage of students who reported having repeated a grade at the primary education level, by OECD country, 2009
Source: CICH graphic created using data adapted from Ikeda, Miyako and Emma García (2014), “Grade repetition: A comparative study of academic and non-academic consequences”, OECD Journal: Economic Studies, Vol. 2013/1. https://www.oecd.org/eco/growth/grade-repetition-a-comparative-study-of-academic-and-non-academic-consequences.pdf – accessed July 24, 2017.
According to the OECD, in 2009 almost 4% of Canadian children had repeated a grade at the primary level.
Canada ranked in the middle of the OECD countries reporting these data.
In the U.S., 9.6% of children had repeated a grade at the primary level.
The OECD found that in most countries examined, at the age of 15, students who repeated a grade in secondary school tended to perform better academically than did students who repeated a grade in primary school, but worse than non-repeaters.1
1Ikeda, Miyako and Emma García (2014), “Grade repetition: A
comparative study of academic and non-academic consequences”, OECD Journal: Economic Studies, Vol. 2013/1. https://www.oecd.org/eco/growth/grade-repetition-a-comparative-study-of-academic-and-non-academic-consequences.pdf-accessed July 24, 2017.