Elementary-Secondary Education Survey (ESES)
Detailed information for 2022/2023
Status:
Active
Frequency:
Annual
Record number:
5102
The Elementary-Secondary Education Survey (ESES) is a national survey of administrative data that focuses primarily on public schools. It also collects some information pertaining to private/independent schools, as well as home-schooling. The ESES collects the following data for elementary and secondary schools: the number of students enrolled, the number of secondary school graduates, along with information on educators, and expenditures.
Description
The ESES is administered annually by Statistics Canada and collects aggregate data from every provincial/territorial Ministry or Department of Education across Canada. The information on enrolments is collected by type of program (regular programs for youth, general programs for adults, and vocational programs for youth and adults), by grade and sex, and by age and sex. The information on official languages programs is collected by type of program (regular second language programs, French immersion programs, and first official language programs for the linguistic minority) and by grade. The ESES also collects information on secondary school graduates, by type of program (regular programs for youth, general programs for adults, and vocational programs for youth and adults), by age and sex, as well as on full-time and part-time educators.
Subjects
- Education, training and learning
Data sources and methodology
Target population
Annually, the department or ministry of education in each province/territory sends Statistics Canada data pertaining to enrolments, graduates, educators and expenditures of the public elementary-secondary schools under their jurisdictions and private schools that operate in their jurisdiction. They also provide enrolment information on home-schooled students.
Instrument design
The Elementary-Secondary Education Survey (ESES) began in 2003 as a Statistics Canada pilot project known as the Elementary-Secondary Education Statistics Project (ESESP). The ESESP survey content originated from three tables that were originally part of a survey sent out each year to all provinces and territories by the British Columbia Ministry of Education. Following formal consultation with all provinces, territories and data users, Statistics Canada introduced seven new tables to collect additional data. The project's goals were to collect expenditure data for elementary and secondary public schools, and to replace several surveys that were collecting data on enrolments, graduates, and educators, including:
- the Elementary/Secondary School Enrolment Survey (ESSE - record number 3128);
- the Secondary School Graduate Survey (SSGS - record number 5082); and
- the Elementary-Secondary Education Staff Survey (ESESS - record number 3127).
Although the ESESP collected expenditure data, the Survey of Uniform Financial System - School Boards survey (SUFSB, record number 3119) remained active.
In January 2010, the ESESP was renamed the Elementary-Secondary Education Survey to symbolize the change from a pilot project to a Statistics Canada ongoing core survey. The main objectives of the collection tool remained: to produce relevant, comparable and timely statistics, and to reduce the respondent burden on educational organizations and school principals.
Following jurisdictional review, Statistics Canada added tables to begin collecting private school data in January 2011, and home-schooling data in January 2012.
Sampling
This survey is a census with a cross-sectional design.
Data are collected for all units of the target population, therefore, no sampling is done.
Data sources
Data collection for this reference period: 2024-04-17 to 2024-06-07
Responding to this survey is mandatory.
Data are collected directly from survey respondents.
The collection template (an Excel file containing multiple tabs) is sent to all respondents using the Electronic File Transfer Service (EFTS); completed collection templates are returned to Statistics Canada via the EFTS.
View the Questionnaire(s) and reporting guide(s) .
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