18. SECONDARY EDUCATION. The public high schools of the English-speaking• provinces have been modeled more or less upon those of Ontario, which was the first (1844) to organize a system of public instruction. As a result, there is a very general similarity amongst them. Quebec, however, which is largely French and Roman Catholic, with an English speaking Protestant minority, has organized its high, as well as its elementary schools, in ac cordance with its exceptional conditions.
Secondary education in Canada is provided for in three main classes of schools which are well distributed geographically and are known sometimes by different names in the different provinces : (1) Public high schools, in which secondary education alone is provided for. A few take up also the first year or the first and the second year work of the universities. Besides the day high schools, night and summer schools are provided generally.
(2) Public high school grades in connection with the elementary schools, known sometimes as construction, superior or intermediate schools. A few of such grades are as good as the smaller high schools, and often gradually develop into separate institutions.
(3) A small number of private secondary schools. These have usually elementary grades attached and occasionally do the work of the earlier years of the universities. Their fewness is due chiefly to the efficiency of the public sys tems, which were organized early in the history of most of the provinces. As, however, the wealth increases, more of such schools are es tablished, but they are now, and will likely con thine to be, comparatively unimportant factors in the education of the Dominion.
The public high schools differ markedly from those of the United States in being organized into one system in each province and in being controlled and supported by the province as well as by the locality. The causes which thus tend to in the individual systems have in most been reinforced by uniform exami nations of the different grades, conducted by the central authority. The state-control is ex
ercised by a minister of education, who is a member of the provincial Cabinet, or by a su perintendent of education, responsible to the Cabinet, or by both. Sometimes such control ling officers have associated with them an ad visory council, variously constituted, with more or less important powers. The functions of the state are legislative and general. Subject to this oversight, which is exercised both di rectly and through government inspectors and which prescribes textbooks, courses of study and school regulations, local boards of trus tees or commissioners have complete control, appointing the teachers and managing the finances. The boards are thus able to deal with local conditions, while the state connection has secured a measure of uniformity and general efficiency of courses and standards. The state contributes often very liberally to the support of the public high schools, the expense of es tablishment and the rest of the expense of maintenance being provided for by local taxes imposed by the municipality or district in which the school is situated, and, with few exceptions, by the county. Sometimes small fees are charged, but the general tendency is towards free schools.
The private schools are generally proprie tary and of denominational origin; and as a result, nearly all of them are under denomina tional control. Although affected in their courses and organization by the denominating public systems, they have no connection with the state, except in the case of a few which are affiliated with state universities, or of some Quebec schools which are subsidized under cer tain conditions. Except also in Quebec, the public high schools are open to and attended by all denominations. The private schools, on the other hand, are usually sectarian, but the religious training given in most of the Protest ant schools is such that they are patronized by the adherents of other churches than those with which they are connected.