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Scuole e Sistema Scolastico in Ontario

The Federal Ministry of Education is responsible for indicating the basic educational principles while the individual provinces are responsible for organizing and setting curricula and regulations.

In the provinces, organization is based on school boards, elective bodies operating at the local level, endowed with autonomous budgets, to organize the entire educational network in each assigned jurisdiction. The boards are in turn divided into public English boards, Catholic English boards, public French boards, and Catholic French baoards.

In Ontario, School levels include Kindergarten (JK-SK, Junior Kindergarten, Senior Kindergarten), Elementary school, grade 1 to grade 5; grade 6, 7 and grade 8, Middle High School and High School, grade 9, grade 10, 11 and grade 12. There is of course a system of Colleges and Universities.

The Ontario Ministry of Education is in charge of all school levels; the Ontario Ministry for Colleges and Universities, on the other hand, oversees higher education.

Schools can accept international students and have well-developed infrastructure and support services, including ESL (English as a Second Language) educational programs and carefully monitored homestay programs. Almost all schools accept international students both for programs up to high school graduation and for shorter stays of a few weeks, months or years. Many elementary schools also accept young students for annual or short-term programs.

Several student exchange agencies have direct relationships with Boards and agree with them on fees for each student. Agencies offer all-inclusive packages, that is, they also include homestay and insurance and medical expenses.

For student mobility at the university level, it is a good idea to contact the relevant desks of the international offices of each university, which will also inform about the necessary visas.

Regarding the possibility of teaching in Ontario schools by non-Canadian teachers, it should be noted that Italian (more generally European) teaching degrees and qualifications or habilitations are NOT recognized.

In Ontario, any graduate, if he or she wants to teach, must obtain the local university degree in Education.

Prominent institutions that prepare students for teaching by giving them the qualification (Certification to teach) include, for example, OISE (Ontario International Institute for Studies in Education) at the University of Toronto. Once qualified, teachers are registered in a professional register, the College of Teachers.

There is a program for international students. On the OISE website you can find the International Degree Equivalencies Tool that allows you to select your country of origin to find out what is accepted as an entrance degree to enroll in OISE. In the Italian case we speak of Laurea and Laurea specialistica, depending on the degree you intend to pursue. It is imperative to contact the offices in charge not only to find out the fees involved in enrolling in the courses but also to learn about all the scholarship possibilities available for competition.

The following sites may be useful:

CICIC – Canadian Information Centre for International Credentials 

AUCC – Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada 

CMEC- Council of Ministers of Education Canada

 

In any case, for detailed and updated information on studying and possible issuance of entry visas to Canada, please refer to the website of the Canadian Embassy in Rome.