All the secondary schools have more or less extended curricula, corresponding to those of the United States high schools; but, as there, the entrance and the leaving standards vary ac cording to the system of organization, the effi ciency of the elementary schools, the require ments of the universities, and the wealth and population of the different provinces. The On tario secondary schools are the best developed and the most efficient, being, as regards stand ard, on a par with the best in the United States. Besides providing a general education, the Ca nadian secondary schools prepare for univer sity matriculation, for commercial pursuits, for teachers' academic certificates and some of them for industrial and technical occupations. In one important and far-reaching respect they differ from the high schools of the United States: their teachers must all hold certificates of academic and professional competency, au thorized by the respective State Departments of Education, and varying somewhat in stand ard and character according to the conditions of the system. Such teachers are usually obliged to attend professional schools. On tario, however, is exceptional in providing for the professional training of its first class pub lic school and high school teachers in two fac ulties of education : (1) in the University of Toronto (provincial), . (2) and the other in Queen's University, Kingston. Both of these faculties receive provincial aid on condition that they provide courses approved by the De partment of Education. In the other provinces the normal schools provide the general profes sional training for all grades.
Following are additional details in regard to each of the provinces: Ontario.— The special secondary schools in Ontario are of two classes, high schools and collegiate institutes. The teachers are of two classet : those with ordinary certificates and those with specialists' certificates, each of the latter having taken an advanced course in his department. The principal of a high school or collegiate institute must be a graduate in arts of a university in the British dominions. The staff of a collegiate institute must consist of specialists with honor university degrees in classics, mathematics, moderns and history (in cluding English), and science, and specialists in art and physical culture; and, where the optional subjects, agriculture, household science and the commercial subjects are taken up, with special ists in these departments also. The staffs of the high schools may consist of teachers with ordinary certificates, but many of them are specialists. Some of the collegiate institutes have as many as 35 teachers and only a few of the high schools have not more than two. Both classes of schools must have good accommoda tions with a minimum equipment of $750 for a high school with two or three teachers; $1,125 for one with four or more teachers; and 1,675 for a collegiate institute. A collegiate insti tute must have, and a high school may have, a gymnasium, for which the former may receive a maximum grant of $96 a year and the latter of $48.
A high school may be established by a county or a city municipal council with the approval of the minister of education, and such estab lishment entitles it to a maximum grant of from about $600 to $1,300, according to the grade of the schools, as well as proper maintenance by the county or the municipality in which it is situ ated. After providing for a minimum grant for each school, the rest of the legislative grant is distributed on the bases of the value of the equipment, the amount of the teachers' salaries, and the character of the accommodations, a system of apportionment which has been adopted generally and which has greatly stimu lated local expenditures and has done much to secure the efficiency of the schools.
Some of the boards of high school trustees are separate from those of the public schools and others, called boards of education, have charge of both classes of schools as in the United States. In constitution, however, they are peculiar in containing a representative of the (Roman Catholic) separate elementary schools, if there should be any such school in a munici pality (the large city of Toronto has two such representatives).
Besides the separately established high schools, there are in connection with the ele mentary schools, in localities which cannot maintain a high school, continuation schools which also do high school work of a character sometimes as good and as comprehensive as is done in many of the high schools. tion schools may be established with the ap proval of the Minister of Education' by a public or a separate school board or by a union of such boards under conditions which ensure their proper maintenance. Of these schools, there are three grades: Grade A with three teachers, grade B with two, and grade C with one; of these, the grade B schools are the most numerous. The teachers of grade A schools must have the same qualifications as the teachers of high schools; those of grades B and C must hold at least first class public school certificates, many, however, being uni versity graduates. The legislative grants to these schools are proportionately even more generous than those to the high schools, and as, being situated in the rural districts, they commend themselves strongly to the county councils, the support from this source is often proportionately larger than in the case of the high schools.
Pupils pass from the fourth grade of the elementary schools, called public or (Roman Catholic) separate schools (ages 12 to 14 or 15), into the secondary schools on uniform ex amination papers set by the department of edu cation, the answers to which are read and valued by local boards. Permission, however, is granted to boards to set their own papers or to accept under certain conditions the promotion examinations of the elementary school staffs. The standard of entrance into the secondary schools in Ontario is at least as high as that of the best high schools of the United States.