Education in Canada

Education is a passion in Canada. Many people came to Canada to do well. Poor and in need, the immigrant wanted to live securely. He hoped to find in the New

World greater scope than in the old. And education seemed to be the answer in any case.

Secondary schools have four or five grades and provide entrance qualifications for university courses of from three to seven years in various academic and professional fields.

There are about 3000 institutions offering courses of university standard in Canada. All the provinces have provincial universities or their equivalent giving courses of arts, science and engineering, medicine, theology and others.

In the French-speaking schools of Quebec take primary courses to grade seven. Pupils may then enter either the church-operated college classique which provides an eight year course leading to baccalaureate and entry to a university professional course, or they may enroll in the secondary division of the public school, which provides further training in technical fields, trades arts or home economics. Higher schools of applied science, commerce or agriculture, affiliated with universities, are available to graduates of the secondary courses. Trade school or regional agricultural school training is optional. The Indian affairs branch of the federal government maintains schools for Indians. Some of them are operated as day schools on the reservation and others as residential schools under some religious domination.

Most provinces require elementary teachers to have had high school graduation. High school teachers are required to have a university degree plus a year of professional study.

About fifty years ago the Canadian graduates who wanted to prepare himself for university teaching turned for advanced study to Oxford or to an American graduate school.

The last years, however, have seen the rise of higher educational institutions in Canada – Toronto, McGill, Montreal, and Laval. Most of the universities offer the doctorate in many fields – humanities, natural sciences, and social sciences. Some of them restrict themselves to the natural sciences, the social sciences, and history, to French classics, and philosophy. Students from all over the world come to participate in this study and research.

University education as a provincial matter varies very considerably across Canada. Most of the universities established before confederation were private institutions. The great number was set up by the church as liberal arts and divinity colleges: Laval (Quebec) and Loyola (Montreal) were Roman Catholic, Dalhousie (Halifax) And Queen’s (Kingston) were Presbyterian, Trinity (Toronto) were Anglican. Today, most of the universities are provincial institutions, and only their theology departments remain under the church. Private universities are still influential, and are the choice of 15 per cent of Canada’s students.

The number of universities in Canada is very large. With 30 million people it has about 70 universities or degree-giving colleges. Canada, then, gives much more opportunity for higher education than most countries: altogether over 500, 000 students are enrolled, of which more than a quarter are women.

Besides general and advanced education in the humanities, social sciences, and pure sciences, a wide range of professional faculties and schools is maintained by the universities of Canada.

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