CANADA’s education system is decentralized and if you’re embarking on a student exchange program to the country, you will surely be awed by Canada’s serenity and development. A typical student exchange program in English-speaking Ontario for instance is a class of mixed nationalities. It is not a surprise that a Filipino exchange student will be mingled with coed classmates from Zimbabwe, China, Norway, Russia, the United Kingdom or Germany. This class will then be introduced not only to Ontario culture but also to a French language acquisition course. French is spoken by half of the people in the country and all high school Canadians are compulsory to take that subject. In a student exchange program in Ontario, students are embedded with Canadian host families. Parents or guardians of these youngsters will certainly need not worry because these host families have already been pre-selected by the schools.

But before embarking on a student exchange program, foreign students must still go through Customs and present their visa. Flights land at the Lester B. Pearson International Airport in Toronto, the capital city of the province. Arriving at the airport alone, foreign high school students will be enthralled for Lester B. Pearson International Airport is the busiest airport in Canada. Ontario itself is filled with several tourism-induced cities – Toronto, the capital city, Burlington, Hamilton, Kingston, London, Ottawa, Niagara Falls, Sudbury, Thunder Bay and Windsor. Some tourist attractions in Ontario that foreign high school students may possibly see are Old Fort William in Thunder Bay, Lake Huron Lighthouses, CN Tower in Toronto and the Trans Canada Trail. Other things that students can possibly find as excursions are hiking through the Old Growth Forest, climb the Fire Tower and go canoeing at Lake Temagami. You can also camp at the Bruce Peninsula National Park or go visit Manitoulin Island. There are also a few beaches in Ontario – Wasaga Beach, Sauble Beach, Grand Bend, Pancake Bay National Park, Sandbanks, Lake Superior, Awenda, Charleston Lake and the Pinery. You can also visit Point Pelee National Park, Pelee Island or Algonquin Park. Or you may want to ride the steam train in Ontario.

Since Ontario is a melting pot of many cultures around the world, its restaurants also feature international cuisines. Since students cannot yet afford fine dining restaurants, it is advisable to tour them around casual dining restaurants in Ontario. Menus in typical casual dining eateries in Spain include the North American staples bacon, eggs, ham, chicken breast, pancakes, peas, sausages, potato fries, toast, spaghetti, grilled cheese, burger, fish, baby beef liver, roast turkey, lasagna, cold turkey, tuna, meat, meatballs, among others.

But above all, schooling must be most important. So make sure one studies well on top of the extra-curricular activities mentioned earlier. Make sure that students have the appropriate period set each to study and do homework. There will certainly be no problem from the viewpoint of the school since the Ontario Ministry of Education mandates that a high school class consists of only a maximum of 23 students. The motivation must come from the student itself.

Like described above, education IS important! As is, through mediums such as student exchanges, learning about new cultures. If you find yourself in agreement with this, why not consider taking your opinions to another level, by following your beliefs in your career? There are many TESOL jobs which offer the opportunity to learn about new cultures whilst teaching English. TESOL jobs are very rewarding - both personally and professionally and you could find yourself teaching anywhere in the world - what more could you ask for in a career?!

LET’S talk about education in Canada in general. Firstly, Canada has a decentralized school system. That means the education system in Quebec is totally different than the education system in Ontario. But on the average, children usually go to elementary school starting at the age of 3 and will culminate by the age of 13. They then go to high school from the ages of 14 to 18. While a public elementary and secondary school is funded by the provincial government, a private institution is funded by the tuition of the students. Since public primary education is free, it is advisable for parents to enroll their children there. They also provide quality education just like their private counterparts. The only difference is that private schools which are members of a certain curriculum follow that particular curriculum. Examples of these school systems are the Waldorf, the Montessori and the Jesuit school systems.

On the other hand, handed down by undergraduate colleges are not just bachelor’s degrees but certificates and diplomas of short courses as well. Meanwhile, graduate colleges are for people who have finished undergraduate colleges and who want to pursue a career in medicine, law or dentistry. And then there are language schools. Most enrollees in these language schools are foreigners. These foreigners choose from the following programs to enroll – English and French. It is noted that half of Canada speak English while the other half speak French. But some of the enrollees in these language schools are Canadians themselves who belong to the other half of the speaking population in a particular place.

That means people enrolling French in a language school in Quebec are English-speaking Canadians while people enrolling English in a language school in Ontario are French-speaking Canadians. For foreigners who study language here, it is a very enjoyable time for them. Students are grouped according to differing nationalities. You will have classmates from Hong Kong, Germany, Italy, Finland, Poland, the Czech Republic, Mexico, the Netherlands and Russia all struggling to learn English or French at the same time. At dusk, students will be billeted to their host families for private tutorials. There, they will be assimilated with Canadian culture local to that place and will get a taste of Canadian cuisine. But students are also expected to share their language with their Canadian hosts. A student from Hong Kong for instance is expected to share Cantonese with hosts. There is really nothing to worry about under this scheme because the Canadian host families have already been pre-selected by the language schools.

The last form of Canadian education is online or correspondence education. Correspondence education has existed since the 1960s and one will receive lessons and quizzes periodically through the mail. The student must mail back the quiz answers so they can be graded by the school. Online education is relatively new and its birth corresponds to that of the World Wide Web. There are two forms of education, one is via email and one is via a secure web site where a student has to log in.

SINCE education in Canada is governed by local governments, we must zero in our discussion a specific province in the country. Take Ontario for example. It has a program called Best Start which takes care of the cognitive development of infants from birth to preschool. Obviously included in this program are babysitting services and day care centers. With Best Start, the government in Ontario funds the nutrition

needs of toddlers in day care centers like milk. Since that means lots and lots of toddlers, your taxes alone cannot pay for their nutrition in government-subsidized day care centers. That’s why the Ontario government heavily relies on the private sector’s endowment to fund its numerous day care centers. Another supplemental program operated by the Ontario Ministry of Education is the infant hearing program for kids who have hearing impairment.

To achieve this, medical staff from the ministry will conduct two tests on the child suspected to having hearing impairment – the automated otoacoustic emissions and the automated auditory brainstem response. For the former, the ear’s response is recorded after audio is played over the headsets of the ears. For the latter, the same procedure is implemented but with additional electrodes placed in the forehead of the child in question. The government sees to it that these kids see an ENT specialist and if possible, cure the ailment so the child would not have difficulty hearing the lessons and communicating with the teacher once he reaches primary grade. Speaking is complementary to hearing so it is essential for parents to know whether there child has a speaking impairment.

Speaking anomalies like stuttering is also a symptom that a child is autistic. By six months old, babies must be sensitive to sounds. He or she communicates his or her needs by making distinctive sounds. It also means the child smiles when the parent smiles. By nine months old, the child can respond to his or her own name, can interact with the parent socially and can understand when told by the parent “no.” By the baby’s first year, the child can understand simple instructions like being told to sit down. The child is also interested in illustration books and brings to the parents any object to show his or her attention to you. To develop the child’s precarious brain at this time, the parents must communicate in simple English to the child even though he or she can’t understand it. By two years old, the child is expected to generate coherent phrases already.
Another strategy of the Ontario government is to embark on a massive information campaign to promote breastfeeding both for affluent and indigent mothers.

Affluent mothers in Canada tend not to breastfeed their children anymore because of pressing concerns at work while indigent mothers would love their children to taste commercial cow’s milk. But the Ontario government is always emphasizing that a mom’s milk is still best for babies up to two years of age. After two years, the child must then be fed with fruits, vegetables and milk products.