INCA Education around the world
Canada : Context, principles and reforms of education
1.1 National characteristics
Geographic, demographic, economic, political and religious context, to help explain expectations and social goals.
Geographic
Canada occupies more than half of the north American continent, including all land north of the 49th parallel. On the east and west, it is bounded by the Atlantic and Pacific oceans respectively. It is the second largest country in the world, covering an area of almost one million square kilometres. However, Canada is not densely populated, with an average of three people per square kilometre. More than half the Canadian population lives in two provinces; Ontario, with a largely English-speaking population and Quebec, where the primary language is French. 15
The capital city of Canada is Ottawa, Ontario, which is located 400 kilometres north east of Toronto, Canada's largest city, on the Ontario-Quebec border.37
Demographic
The population of Canada in 2007 was just over 33 million.
Many different ethnic groups make up Canada's population. Aboriginal people, the first inhabitants, are few in number but have contributed significantly to the exploration and culture of the country. The first Europeans to settle in Canada left a dual heritage of French and English languages, both of which have official status. In addition to its native population and the descendants of the original European immigrants, Canada has experienced a steady flow of immigration from other countries. In coming together to build their country, Canadians from many cultural backgrounds discovered that tolerance and flexibility were necessary in order to unite so many different historical, geographical and ethnic elements. The education systems that evolved were designed to accommodate this diversity and, as a result, Canadian provinces and territories have developed comprehensive, diversified systems of education, designed to be universally accessible and to respond to the bilingual and multicultural character of Canadian society.
Immigration has had a major impact on schooling, particularly in British Columbia, Alberta, Ontario, and Quebec. Immigrants from the Pacific Rim comprise the majority of students in some schools in and around Vancouver. Ontario and Quebec attract Asian immigrants but also large numbers of immigrants from Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and the Caribbean.
Canada's historical connections to both England and France have had major impacts on education. Although the dominant French-Canadian perception is that Canada was founded by two nations - the English and the French - with equal rights in Confederation, English Canadians tend to believe that Quebec, where the majority of Francophones live, is just one of ten provinces with equal rights. This ongoing tension, often referred to as Canada's "two solitudes," has fuelled federal language policies designed to recognise the equal status of the country's two official languages - French and English.
As a result of the perceived benefits of being fluent in both official languages (employment and promotion within the federal civil service, for example), virtually all Canadian school districts outside of Quebec include French immersion schools for Anglophone children, French designated schools for Francophone youngsters, and English schools in which students study French as a second language during a relatively small part of the school week. The foregoing types of French language instruction have impacted teacher education programmes at universities, the development of curricula and of instructional resources etc. The Government of Canada has committed to encouraging linguistic duality and offering support in official-language minority communities, with the Roadmap for Canada's Linguistic Duality 2008-2013.158
Native educational issues are also significant in Canada. Although nearly all of education is controlled by individual provincial governments, the education of native children was previously controlled by the federal government in Ottawa. Now, education on most Indian reservations is under the jurisdiction of the locally-elected Band Councils.
Economic
Canada has grown from a largely agricultural and resource-based economy to a prosperous, industrialised country,16 which places a high priority on education. The International Labour Organisation (ILO) unemployment rate for Canada (persons aged 15 and over) in 2006 was 6.3 per cent (6.5 percent for men and 6.1 per cent for women). (This data was sourced from the ILO Laborsta database, available at: http://www.ilo.org/.)
Given the vast distances between production centres in Canada, and therefore the high costs of internal migration in response to regional economic conditions, regional disparities exist in such labour market outcomes as wages and unemployment. 38
Political
Canada is a confederation of ten provinces and three territories (Newfoundland and Labrador, Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Quebec, Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, British Columbia, Yukon Territory, Northwest Territories, and the Nunavut [aboriginal] Territory).21
The Confederation Act of 1867, which brought together the four original provinces, was designed to build a strong central government, while ensuring autonomy and self-government for the participants in matters relating to their specific socio-economic interests, language, religion, law (in the case of Quebec) and, significantly, education. These rights were extended to other communities as they joined the federation. Consequently, Canada does not have a national system of education, nor a central office of education. Subject to the observance of certain guaranteed minority religious and language rights, education is exclusively under the control of each province and territory.17
Canada is a parliamentary democracy with its citizens represented in an elected House of Commons. The Government is headed by a Prime Minister who is the leader of the political party in power. Areas of government jurisdiction are divided between the federal government and the provinces. Federal powers include jurisdiction over areas such as defence, external affairs, monetary and fiscal matters, fisheries and energy. Provinces and territories are responsible for matters such as education, social services, health, forestry and highways.
Religious
Schools in Canada are generally secular, although in some provinces, state-funded denominational schools (usually Catholic or Protestant) do exist. In Ontario, for example, there are two publicly-funded parallel systems - one is the public school system and the other is the Catholic separate school system, which is fully-funded.59
