10 benefits showing why education is important to our society

A Historical Overview of Education in Ontario

By coreyvg

  • 1790

    The first government effort made toward publicly funding schools.

  • 1799

    Acts were passed that guaranteed technical education to orphaned children and also required that teachers be certified.

  • 1807

    District School Act signalled the first official action in government-aided schooling. (one school per district with payment of tuition)

  • 1816

    The Common School Act was passed; the first major step in providing mass schooling for the “common” people in Upper Canada. (Ontario)

  • 1841

    The School Act for the United Province of Canada (Upper & Lower Canada) was passed, creating non-denominational public schools for Upper Canada that were not oriented toward any particular religion.

  • 1844

    1844
    Egerton Ryerson became chief superintendent of education in Upper Canada.

  • 1846

    Ryerson drafted a bill that became the Common School Act. The first major piece of education-related legislation in the history of Upper Canada.

  • 1846

    1846
    Egerton Ryerson opened the first normal school (teacher training institution) in Ontario in order to facilitate the better training of teachers.

  • 1850

    Ryerson passed a second Common School Act, which allowed school tax to be levied on all property and provided free admission of children to schools.
  • Period: to

    Mid-1850s

    Seperate schools (Catholic) also gained status as permanent school boards in Upper Canada, after years of struggle by the Catholic minority in the province.

  • 1871

    The Ontario School Act was passed, which legislated that free, compulsory elementary schooling in government-inspected schools was to be provided for all.

  • 1871

    The Education Act made school attendance compulsory for children between the ages of 8 and 14, and “common schools” were renamed as “public schools.”

  • 1885

    English was made a mandatory subject, and five years later this was extended to making it the language of instruction.

  • 1894

    Attendance at residential schools became mandatory, with fines or imprisonment being legally threatened if Aboriginal children failed to attend.

  • 1912

    Regulation 17 was issued, which limited French instruction to the first two years of elementary schooling.

  • 1913

    One hour of French instruction per day was offcially allowed.

  • 1960

    Legislation passed to permit instruction in French at the elementary and secondary levels.
  • Period: to

    1960s

    University degrees became required for admission to teachers’ colleges.

  • 1965

    1965
    The last segregated school for Blacks in Ontario, located in Merlin (near Chatham), was closed.

  • 1975

    1975
    The National Indian Brotherhood called for an end to the federal control of Aboriginal schooling, and residential schools eventually began to close.

  • 2005

    The Canadian government negotiated the Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement, which agreed to pay out a sum of $2 billion as a compensation package to former residential school students.