Education in Ontario

Education in Ontario falls under provincial jurisdiction. Publicly funded elementary and secondary schools are administered by the Ontario Ministry of Education, while colleges and universities are administered by the Ontario Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities.

The current Minister of Education is Laurel Broten, and the current minister of Training, Colleges and Universities is Glen Murray.

Ontario operates four publicly funded school systems. An English-language public school system, a French-language public school system, an English language separate school school system and a French language separate school system. The public school system was originally Protestant but is now secular and non-denominational. The Separate School system is Roman Catholic (open to students of all faiths at secondary level, they have the option of refusing non-Catholics at the elementary level) with the exception of the Penetanguishene Protestant Separate School Board which runs a single Protestant school.

Within the public boards, alternative schools have begun to emerge. In 2009 the Africentric School opened in Toronto and in 2011 the DSBN Academy opened its doors. The Africentric school was established in part to address the 40% dropout rate of black students in the Toronto District School Board. the DSBN Academy is a new school aimed at providing additional supports for students who may lack access or the resources to attend post secondary education. These alternative schools are based on social contexts that the individual school boards deem necessary for their constituents and are funded within the publicly funded school systems.

In addition, alternative schools in Ontario have also come to be for religious contexts as in the case of Eden High School in St. Catharines."Eden is a publicly funded secondary school that operates as an alternative secondary school within the District School Board of Niagara. The school offers the prescribed Ontario Ministry of Education’s Secondary School program delivered in the context of a community where the educational objectives of the Ministry of Education and those of Eden's own Spiritual Life Department are respected and regarded as complementary in the training of students."

Finally, Ontario allows private schools that meet provincial standards to offer the Ontario Secondary School Diploma. "According to the Education Act of Ontario, a private school is deemed as any educational institution that is partially or entirely funded by sources other than the government, and that students of appropriate age attend for instruction between 9:00 to 16:00 on a typical school day. Ontario private schools are regulated by the province's Ministry of Education, and must meet, but often exceed, their standards. As a result, it is necessary for each to notify the ministry of their operation annually before or on September 1.

Officers can inspect the records and premises of Ontario private schools to ensure they meet provincial standards. Inspection is also carried out if a private secondary school would like to include subjects in their curriculum that can be counted as credits for the Ontario Secondary School Diploma.

There are approximately 700 private schools in Ontario, most represented by associations uniting schools of a common goal, view, or philosophy. Instructors are not required to be members of the Ontario College of Teachers, though many often are. More importantly, instructors are commissioned if their credentials satisfy the requirements outlined by their respective private school. As there are several types of private schools from elementary to the secondary school level, experience and training will differ for each."

• See List of Ontario school boards

The UN has cited Ontario for discrimination against non-Catholics because Ontario publicly funds the Catholic School Board but not schools professing any other faith. A CBC poll suggested that 58.2% of Ontarians want a single publicly funded school system with no discrimination.

The Independent Learning Centre was founded in 1926 to provide distance education services to elementary and secondary school students. Since 2002, the ILC has been operated by the Ontario Educational Communications Authority (TVOntario).