Introduction
Critical infrastructures are the large-scale, reliable and essential products and services which support our society. In Canada, under the National Security Policy (NSP) there are 10 National Critical Infrastructure (NCI) sectors. Federal, provincial and territorial governments are collaborating to provide policies, directive, knowledge, and funds to protect these 10 NCIs, as a disruption to them will have a severe impact on national security. However, the education sector is not listed as an NCI, which leaves education sector and significant portion of Canadians under protected.
This paper introduces the research and provides a discussion on the contextual background of the research concerns and problem statement. It will identify the research problem and supporting research questions, and conclude with a list of recommendation.
Contextual Background
Critical Infrastructure (CI) is the lifeblood of Canada, and the high availability, reliability, integrity and confidentiality of the CI is paramount in maintaining the sovereignty, national security, and economic health and wellbeing of the Canadian society. The education sector should be created as a separate NCI because recent reports and studies emphasize that education must be a national security matter (Council on Foreign Relations, 2012). Hence, the failure of education sector can pose significant threats to national security and economic growth.
Problem Statement
According to Statistics Canada, there are approximately 15,500 schools (elementary and secondary), 163 public and private universities, and 183 recognized public colleges and institutes. Provinces and territories reported that there were 6.5 million students enrolled in educational institutes and 610,000 instructors (Statistics Canada, 2012).
The omittance of approximately 20% of Canada’s population and 2.3% of growth domestic