Facts about the Canadian Education System at a Glance

Hang Lyu who works for EducationUSA, shared an overview of the Canadian Education system and some specific facts about Toronto prior to our visit with the Toronto School Board in the afternoon.

With some basic facts, education in Canada is:

• Education in Canada is not a federal governmental responsibility but instead a provincial one.

• There are 190 school days in a school year, which is 5-10 days longer than most American

• school years and typically their years start in September and go through June.

• Compulsory education begins in 1st grade and goes through when a child is 16 - but many places start in what they call kindergarten - which is actually around when students are between 3 and 4 years old, depending on their birthdate.

Ontario, has taken some specific initiatives that are a bit different then some of the things that we see in the US. For example:

• Starting coding classes in Grade 1

• Financial literacy lessons starting in Grade 4

• De-streaming Math Programs starting in Grade 9

• Future plans to Destream Science beginning in Grade 9 (2022-2023 school year)

• Required Hybrid Courses for High School students, they will need to complete 2 online courses in order to graduate.