The UN Human Development Report defines secondary education as education at the second level. It is based on at least four years of previous instruction at the first level and includes middle schools, secondary schools, high schools, teacher training schools, vocational and technical schools. Singapore, Bulgaria, Korea, and Japan show even fewer students entering what we in Canada call senior levels of high school. It seems that if Canada is to be properly compared to Singapore, only the top 68 per cent of Canadian students should be included. Access to post-secondary education is also limited to students in many of these countries.
Tertiary education is defined as education at the third level.
As a minimum condition of admission, it requires the completion of education at the second level or evidence of an equivalent level of knowledge. It includes universities, teacher colleges and higher professional schools. A greater percentage of students in Canada proceed to post-secondary education. In Singapore only eight per cent of individuals who complete secondary school actually go on to post-secondary education. The same can be said about the percentage of tertiary graduates.