Hande Soran

Hande Soran – Canada

1. How do you evaluate your education in terms of quality? What are the pros and cons you observe?
   
   – In terms of the quality of education in Canada, Canada has a very developed education system.
   – In Canada they don’t make you study and learn and never take your head out of books, they allow you to personally develop and learn
   I believe that this helps the quality of education

There are 4 types of education in Canada
Public: Free education
French immersion: Free education. That is meant to teach students French so that they can embrace the bilingual qualities of Canada.
Private: Paid education with the school’s own curriculum
Catholic: Public education with the influence of religion

When considering the detail in education between the private and public educations though, private education has more enriched programs.

Public Education:
Pros:
Students who want to focus more on out-of-school activities have the freedom to do so because of the early end of class
It is free for residents
It’s a large community that will allow students to have a broad social life as well as fair education.
Cons:
If the parents are not interested in their child, and don’t send them to do extracurriculars than the child may not do any extracurriculars since the school does not provide many.
The education is limited and assumes that all students want to learn the same way.

Catholic education:
Pros:
Students have their academic education and still incorporate religion into their daily lives
It is free
A community that you probably know from other places like church
Cons:
Limited extracurricular opportunities in school
Larger classes that people with difficulties learning can find hard to learn in

French Immersion:
Pros:
Students have the opportunity to become bilingual, if not already. Being bilingual also develops a part of a brain that nothing else does
It is free
Students who want to focus more on out-of-school activities have the freedom to do so because of the early end of class
Cons:
Since you have to register for French immersion education from a very young age, if a student does not want to learn French when they are older, than the students will be unenthusiastic about school
If the parents are not interested in their child, and don’t send them to extracurriculars than the child will not do any extracurriculars since the school does not provide many

Private Education:
Pros:
Has extracurriculars in school so that students can learn and persue their passions at the same time
Has a different curriculum than public schools (mine teaches two years ahead in English and math, with a STEM program. We learn 1 year ahead in French and science)

Mostly project base learning
Small classes to allow students to learn in a more closed and personal environment
Cons:
Has longer school hours that don’t allow students for outside after-school activities
Pretty expensive

Objective: Student sharing view about his/her own education, how she/he evaluate his/her own education.

2. Do you think everyone has good access to education in your country/region? Why?

I think in Canada education is accessible at a great quality level.
There are 8 provinces and 3 territories in Canada. Each province or territory is responsible for their own education system.
Most of them are the same system, but they may differ
I can only speak from the perspective of the province of Ontario, but I know that most provinces and territories have similar systems
Any child can have access to free education. The only reason for a child not to get a good education would be because they don’t want to.
For a child willing to study and have a profession in his/her life, the public system in Canada can offer the opportunity for free. For this, the child should be guided well through the family or the teacher who would recognize/ acknowledge it.
But the public system would not provide the best opportunities for things like advanced curriculum. The system is based on one way of learning and if the kid has a different way of learning, s/he may not thrive in public education
Everyone in my region has equal access to education.
This is provided through public schools.
If a child is willing to pursue a higher education a public school from elementary to high school will give them the opportunities they need.
The reason why I think that everyone in my region has good access to education is because the Canadian government had worked towards that and ensured that this happened.

Objective: sharing the vision of the student about education in her/his own country, region or community. Some different social contexts shall appear here.

3.What do you think would be a good idea to make education and access to education better in your country? What could be done and who could do it?

Canada has almost perfected the education system.
The only flaw in its system is the enjoyment of the teachers with this system.
If the teachers were paid better, then they would be more enthusiastic.
For this to happen though, more money would have to be put into the education system.
Many teachers prefer teaching in public schools because they retire as part of the government and get retirement funds as if they were a government employee. It is not easy. And in private system the teachers’ contracts are renewed yearly, so their jobs are not guaranteed for the following year may have impact on their stress level.  There may be also a challenge if new implementations into education make teachers lose their jobs.

Objective: sharing a notion of a way to follow in extending the right to education by the views of the students

In the end, it’s expected that the students will have a more enhanced perception of the different types of education realities around the world, being provided a reflection about education in his/her own nation