General Facts

About one out of ten Canadians does not have a high school diploma
one in seven has a university degree the adult population that is
without a high school diploma is a combination of both immigrant and
Canadian-born. In many places, publicly funded high school courses
are offered to the adult population.
The ratio of high school graduates versus non diploma-holders is
changing rapidly, partly due to changes in the labour market that
require people to have a high school diploma and, in many cases, a
university degree.
Nonetheless, more than 51% of Canadians have a college degree, the
highest rate in the world by far.
Elementary, secondary, and post-secondary education in Canada is a
provincial responsibility and there are many variations between the
provinces. Some educational fields are supported at various levels by
federal departments.
Canada spends about 5.4% of its GDP on education. The country
invests heavily in tertiary education (more than 20 000 USD per
student). Recent reports suggest that from 2006 the tuition fees of
Canadian universities have increased by 40 percent. Since the
adoption of section 23 of the Constitution Act, 1982, education in
both English and French has been available in most places across
Canada (if the population of children speaking the minority language
justifies it), although French Second Language education/French
Immersion is available to anglophone students across Canada.
According to an announcement of Canadian Minister of Citizenship and
Immigration, Canada is introducing a new, fast-track system to let
foreign students and graduates with Canadian work experience
become permanent eligible residents in Canada.
Most schools have introduced one or more initiatives such as programs
in Native studies, antiracism, Aboriginal cultures and crafts; visits by
elders and other community members; and content in areas like
indigenous languages, Aboriginal spirituality, indigenous knowledge of
nature, and tours to indigenous heritage sites. Although these classes
are offered, most appear to be limited by the area or region in which
students reside.
The curriculum is designed to elicit development and quality of
people's cognition through the guiding of accommodations of

individuals to their natural environment and their changing social

order. Finally, some scholars view academics as a form of soft power
helping to educate and to create positive attitudes, although there is
criticism that educators are merely telling students what to think,
instead of how to think for themselves.
Furthermore, subjects that typically get assessed (e.g., language arts,
mathematics, and science) assume greater importance than nonassessed subjects (e.g., music, visual arts, and physical education) or
facets of the curriculum (e.g., reading and writing versus speaking and
listening). The students in the Canadian school system receive a
variety of classes that are offered to them. The system is set up to
meet the diverse needs of the individual student.
Normally, for each type of publicly funded school (such as Public
English or Public French), the province is divided into districts (or
divisions). For each district, board members (trustees) are elected only
by its supporters within the district (voters receive a ballot for just one
of the boards in their area). Normally, all publicly funded schools are
under the authority of their local district school board. These school
boards would follow a common curriculum set up by the province the
board resides in. Only Alberta allows public charter schools, which are
independent of any district board. Instead, they each have their own
board, which reports directly to the province.
Always a contender for a place in the top 5, Canada has one of the
worlds highest college graduation rates. The country still has not
invested enough time or resources to develop children before they
enroll into primary education. When they do, they could find
themselves a top 3 ranking.
Secondary school
In Canada secondary schools (also known as High schools) are
educational institutions consisting most commonly of students enrolled
in grades ten through twelve (ages fifteen to eighteen). Four
provinces' high schools consist of grades nine to twelve, and in
Quebec, high school years are Secondary 1 through to Secondary 5
(grades 711). Variations and subdivisions of these structures are
fairly common. The majority of high schools in Canada schedule
classes running from late August or early September to mid or late
June with a summer break during July and August.
Canadian high schools offer many extracurricular activities, including
athletics. The most popular sports in Canadian high schools are ice

hockey, rugby, soccer, lacrosse, field hockey, football, baseball,

basketball, track and field athletics, and volleyball. Grad, also known
as "senior prom" or "formal", is a very popular activity amongst
graduating students. Many non-sporting extra-curricular activities are
offered in Canadian high schools, including drama, student newspaper
club, yearbook club, and computer club.
An increasing number of international students are attending Canadian
high schools. Among all boarding secondary schools in Canada,
Columbia International College is the largest, with around 1,400
international students from 66 countries.
College education
College education, informally referred to as College and often
informally by the umbrella acronym CEGEP in the Canadian province
of Quebec is the post-secondary level immediately after high-school
but required for university admissions. The Quebec education system
is unique in North America. One aspect of that uniqueness is that it is
the only system that has four separate education levels: grade school,
high school, college, university.
The college level is a separate and distinct step in Quebec. For
students graduating from high school in Quebec a college diploma is
required for admission into university. In the rest of Canada colleges
have historically been technical schools that offer specialized
professional or vocational education in specific employment fields. In
the USA the term college is synonymous with university.
University in Canada
Canada has a well-established position among the worlds leading
study destinations. The most popular Canadian provinces for
international students are Ontario, British Columbia and Quebec, which
between them are home to many of the top universities in Canada.
For those looking to study at an elite university in one of the worlds
most developed nations, applying to study in Canada can be an
attractive option. A total of 26 universities in Canada feature in the QS
World University Rankings 2016-2017, of which three are in the
worlds top 50, with 10 more making the worlds top 300 a feat
matched only by a handful of other nations.
The two highest Canadian entries are McGill University (30th) and the
University of Toronto (32nd), located in Montral and Toronto
respectively, the two largest cities in Canada. Also ranked within the
global top 200 are the University of British Columbia, the University of

Alberta, Universit de Montral, McMaster University, the University of

Waterloo, the University of Calgary and Western University.

Undergraduate degrees in Canada can take either three or four years

to complete, depending on the university. Postgraduate degrees last
between one and three years to complete, depending on the type of
degree. Different types of higher education providers in Canada
include: community colleges; technical, applied arts or applied science
schools (which grant certificates, diplomas, associates degrees and
bachelors degrees); or universities (which carry out research and
provide both undergraduate and postgraduate degrees).
As universities in Canada are managed by provincial governments,
youll find there will be slight differences in how education is carried
out. Quebec in particular is markedly different to the rest of Canada,
with different term times and length of study. For instance, students
finish secondary school a year early and must take a mandatory preuniversity General and Vocational College (CEGEP) course, essentially
eliminating the freshman year of university. Check with your chosen
institutions for specific details.
Studying a masters or PhD? To find out about studying in Canada at
graduate level, get your free online copy of the QS Top Grad School
Guide.
Value of higher education
A 2013 study by CIBC World Markets has found that the overall rate of
unemployment among university graduates is only slightly lower than
that of high school graduates, the wage boost associated with higher
education is narrowing, and "a look at the dispersion of earnings
across fields of study shows that there is a much greater risk of falling
into a lower-income category for graduates of humanities and social
sciences, with a limited risk for students of
health, engineering or business. Those underperforming sectors
comprise just under half of all recent graduates. In other words,
Canadian students are continuing to pursue fields where upon
graduation, they aren't getting a relative edge in terms of income
prospects".
A 2014 study by Statistics Canada has found that, compared to recent
university graduates in education, medicine, or engineering, graduates
in the humanities are two or three times more likely to be employed in
jobs requiring a high school education or less.

In 2015, Statistics Canada reported that almost one-quarter of

university graduates reported having gone back to school and
completed another certificate, diploma or university degree of equal or
lesser level to their first degree. People with a university degree in the
humanities or in physical and life sciences and technologies were the
most likely to complete another postsecondary program of an equal or
lesser level, while those with degrees
in mathematics, information or computer sciences or in personal,
protective or transportation services were the least likely. Most of the
second diplomas were in business, management and public
administration, education, and health and related fields.
A 2016 study from Statistics Canada found that the highest paying
undergraduate degrees for both men and women in 2010
were management science and quantitative analyst, followed
by chemical engineering. The highest paying master's degree
was financial management and financial services.
Private schools
About 5.6% of students are in private schools. A minority of these are
elite private schools, which are attended by only a small fraction of
students, but do have a great deal of prestige and prominence. A far
larger portion of private schools are religious based institutions. Private
schools are also used to study outside the country. For example,
Canadian College Italy has an Ontario curriculum, but the school is
located in Italy.
Private schools have historically been less common on the Canadian
Prairies and were often forbidden under municipal and provincial
statutes enacted to provide equality of education to students
regardless of family income. This is especially true in Alberta, where
successive Social Credit (or populist conservative) governments
denounced the concept of private education as the main cause of
denial of opportunity to the children of the working poor.
Religion in Schools
In Canada, religious education has a varying status. On the one hand,
publicly funded and organized separate schools for Roman Catholics
and Protestants are mandated in some provinces and in some
circumstances by various sections of the Constitution Act, 1867. On
the other hand, with a growing level of multiculturalism, particularly
in Ontario, debate has emerged as to whether publicly funded religious
education for one group is permissible. For

example, Newfoundland withdrew funding for Protestant and Roman

Catholic schools in 1995, after a constitutional
amendment. Quebec abolished religious education funded by the state
through the Education Act, 1998, which took effect on July 1 of that
same year, again after a constitutional amendment. Quebec reorganized the schools along linguistic rather than religious lines. In
Ontario, however, the move to abolish funding has been strongly
resisted. In the 2007 provincial election, the topic of funding for faithbased schools that were not Catholic became a major topic. The
provincial conservative party was defeated due, in part, to their
support of this topic.