EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM OF CANADA
Introductive information
Under the jurisdiction of the provinces, Canada provides free education from elementary through to secondary school. Beyond that tuition must be paid in what are known as community colleges (CEGEPS in Quebec) and universities, although the true cost is subsidised through taxes. Community colleges present one to three-year programmes in a range of fields from graphic design to jewellery-making to nursing. These are taught under the broad categories of Arts, Business, Science 8i Technology and Health Services. Universities provide higher academic and professional training.
At the early levels, there are two basic school systems, known as the public and the separate. Both are free, and essentially the same but the latter is designed for Catholics and offers more religious education. Anyone can attend either one but the two systems do split pretty much along, religious denomination.
French-immersion programmes, in which English children are taught all their courses in French, are quite popular across Canada.
There are also a number of private schools but no real private system. Schools in this category include alternative educational methods such as Waldorf and Montessori.
The education system has been under constant scrutiny in recent years. Students leaving high school have fared poorly in international testing, have been called essentially illiterate by universities and, according to business leaders, are poorly prepared for jobs in industry.
A national survey in 1989 found that 62% of Canadians had enough reading skills to get through an average Canadian day reasonably competently. Since then there has been an effort to tighten up on the teaching and testing of the fundamentals.
English or French is the language of instruction, and some schools provide instruction in both official languages. Each of the ten provinces has responsibility for establishing and maintaining its own school system. In Quebec, the French-Canadian tradition is followed by the Roman Catholic schools. The province also maintains Protestant schools, however, which are widely attended. Although Canada does not have a central ministry of education, the federal government provides schools for children of Native Americans on reserves, inmates of federal penitentiaries, and the children of military personnel.
The history of canadian educational system
The earliest Canadian schools, which were conducted by French Catholic religious orders, date from the early 17th century. Higher education was inaugurated in 1635 in the city of Quebec. It was not until the transfer of Canada from French to British jurisdiction in 1763 that an educational system began to emerge that encompassed church, governmental, and private secular schools. The early 19th century saw the establishment of the large universities, beginning with McGill University in 1821 and followed by the University of Toronto in 1827 and the University of Ottawa in 1848. Since World War II ended in 1945, a notable expansion in higher education has occurred. Many new institutions have been founded, and the older universities have increased in size, scope, and influence. The federal and provincial governments fund the university system in Canada, and students pay only a small portion of the cost. Universities are still the predominant institutions offering higher education, but the number of non university postsecondary institutions, particularly community colleges, has increased sharply in recent decades.
Elementary and Secondary Schools
Education is generally compulsory for children from ages 6 or 7 to ages 15 or 16, depending on the province in which they live, and it is free until the completion of secondary school studies. In the early 1990s Canada had more than 16,000 elementary and secondary schools, with a total enrollment of nearly 5.3 million students.
The system of canadian specialised schools
In the early 1990s Canada maintained 19 specialized schools for the blind and the deaf. These institutions together enrolled about 2400 pupils, who were instructed by some 575 teachers. Canada had several schools for mentally handicapped children;
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Nursing education, formerly concentrated at special schools attached to hospitals, has been transferred to community colleges, which numbered 203 in the early 1990s. Similarly, teacher training has been shifted from specialized institutions to colleges and universities.