The Fraser Institute: More Students Attending Independent Schools as Public School Enrolment Drops

TORONTO, ONTARIO--(Marketwired - Oct. 6, 2015) - Private school enrolment across Canada is up by almost 17 per cent while public school enrolment has decreased eight per cent, according to a new study released today by the Fraser Institute, an independent, non-partisan Canadian public policy think-tank.

The study, Where Our Students are Educated: Measuring Student Enrolment in Canada, finds that enrolment increased for independent schools and decreased for public schools in almost every province across Canada between 2000/01 to 2012/13 (the most recent period for which comparable data were available).

"While education is funded and delivered differently across the provinces, we're seeing a greater number of parents in the vast majority of provinces choosing to have their children educated outside of the public school system," said Deani Van Pelt, study author and director of the Fraser Institute's Barbara Mitchell Centre for Improvement in Education.

Out of all the provinces, between 2000/01 and 2012/13, Saskatchewan experienced the largest increase in enrollment for independent schools (34.2 per cent) followed by Alberta (30.6 per cent) and British Columbia (24.4 per cent).

Quebec - which already had the highest rate of private school enrolment in the country - experienced an increase of 18.1 per cent.

Currently, all four western provinces and Quebec partially fund the operating costs of independent schools.

But even Ontario (which is one of the five provinces that doesn't fund independent schools) had a significant bump in its independent school enrolment-an increase of 9.4 per cent over the period.

"In Ontario, more and more parents are choosing to take on additional financial burden to send their children to private schools," Van Pelt said.

Because provinces have autonomy over K-12 education, the level of school choice available to parents varies province by province.

Each province provides both English and French language education within their public school systems while three provinces - Ontario, Alberta and Saskatchewan - also offer public education through religious 'separate' (Roman Catholic) schools.

In addition, Alberta is the only province that allows charter schools: schools within its public system that enjoy a fair degree of flexibility with respect to pedagogy, curriculum and management.

"While education in public schools is still the dominant form of education in Canada, the data indicates parents are increasingly looking to independent schools for more choice in how their children are educated," Van Pelt said.

Independent school enrolment (by province)

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The Fraser Institute is an independent Canadian public policy research and educational organization with offices in Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto, and Montreal and ties to a global network of think-tanks in 87 countries. Its mission is to improve the quality of life for Canadians, their families and future generations by studying, measuring and broadly communicating the effects of government policies, entrepreneurship and choice on their well-being. To protect the Institute's independence, it does not accept grants from governments or contracts for research. Visit www.fraserinstitute.org