Canadian public secondary schools are established through government investment and are non-profit educational institutions. The Canadian government provides generous welfare systems for its citizens and new immigrants. Local students of appropriate age can receive free Canadian education in corresponding public schools from kindergarten through the completion of secondary school.
Canadian private secondary schools are founded by private companies. Every city in Canada has dozens of private secondary schools approved and registered by local school boards. These registered private secondary schools, together with government public secondary schools, constitute the Canadian secondary education system. (It should be noted that private secondary schools approved and registered by Canadian school boards are distinct from general private training schools; registered private secondary schools possess the same qualifications as government public secondary schools to grant credits and issue secondary school diplomas.) Unlike Canadian universities, the primary difference between the two is that private secondary schools charge tuition. The following is a comparison between public and private secondary schools in Ontario, the most populous province in Canada, to illustrate the differences:
(1) Public secondary schools have a larger number of students. Depending on the community, each public secondary school has between 800 and 3,000 students and implements large-class instruction (about 40-50 students per class), focusing primarily on grade 9-12 secondary curriculum education. In Ontario, approximately 5% of public secondary schools currently enroll international students, with international students accounting for 2% of the student body in such schools. Public schools do not offer ESL English courses; international students entering public secondary schools study the Ontario secondary curriculum directly and must learn English independently. Canada implements a neighborhood school system, and public secondary schools do not have dormitories; international students attending public secondary schools reside with local families.
(2) Canadian private secondary schools can be divided into two categories: The first category consists of community secondary schools focused on providing educational services to local students. Depending on the community, the number of students in each private secondary school ranges from 70 to 300, implementing small-class instruction (about 10 students per class). These private secondary schools primarily enroll local students and focus on grade 9-12 secondary curriculum education. Such schools are small in scale, with international students accounting for about 5%-10%. The schools offer ESL language courses, allowing international students to study English first and then take local secondary courses after meeting the language requirements. These schools are generally located in central urban community areas, making it convenient for local students to attend nearby. Since local students all attend schools in their vicinity, these secondary schools do not have dormitories, and international students attending them reside with local families. The second category consists of private international secondary schools that primarily enroll international students. Canada attracts students from all over the world to study in the country due to its high-quality education, and private international secondary schools characterized by nationality have also formed in Canada. There are international secondary schools dominated by Korean students (where the proportion of Korean students in the school is over 95%), as well as those dominated by Chinese students.
