Canada, and particularly Ontario (home to the main community), is a country with a very important Italian and Italian-Canadian communities.
In the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) there is an estimated 1 million Canadians of Italian descent.
Italian is one of the so-called “International Languages” and is taught in both extracurricular and curricular courses. In fact, there are Extended Day Italian programs, that is, in which Italian is a curricular subject, and Saturday morning programs. In particular, Extended programs are found in Toronto Catholic District School Board (TCDSB) elementary schools and York Catholic District School Board (YCDSB) elementary schools.
At the secondary school level, Italian is offered by law as an elective subject in the International Languages program. However, it is necessary to have a legal number of requests to activate the course, and few schools are able to reach these enrollments.
Families from Italy who need to place their children in local schools should contact the School Boards operating in their chosen area of residence in order to be informed about locally available schools.
There is a School Office at the Consulate General in Toronto working to promote Italian language in the school system in the jurisdiction. The email is: toronto.scuola@esteri.it