Canada’s online citizenship test – A troubling rise in pass rates: Andrew Griffith for Inside Policy

My latest analysis of citizenship test pass rates and government changes to make it easier for applicants to pass:

The citizenship test is not simply another administrative hurdle. It’s meant to establish that applicants understand the country they are joining, and is an important part of the journey to becoming Canadian.

Becoming a Canadian citizen is more than completing a series of forms, tests, and administrative requirements. It is a moment of shared accomplishment and belonging — one that is diminished when the journey to citizenship increasingly happens alone, behind a screen.

In its quest to reduce costs, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) has increasingly shifted to online citizenship delivery, whether through online applications, citizenship ceremonies, online knowledge testing, and the proposed (but not yet implemented) online self-affirmation of the citizenship oath. In doing so, Canada risks losing something less tangible but no less important: the shared civic experience that turns legal status into a sense of belonging.

But online testing has brought another, more immediately troubling change: pass rates have risen sharply across most countries, raising questions about the integrity of the testing process…..

Source: Canada’s online citizenship test – A troubling rise in pass rates: Andrew Griffith for Inside Policy