North America Canada '' is a private Catholic school. Founded in 1639, it is one of the oldest active schools in North America The existence of Catholic schools in
Canada can be traced to the year 1620, when the first school was founded by the Catholic
Recollet Order in
Quebec. Most schools in Canada were operated under the auspices of one Christian body or another until the 19th century. Currently publicly supported Catholic schools operate in three
provinces (
Alberta,
Ontario, and
Saskatchewan), as well as all three federal territories (
Northwest Territories,
Nunavut, and
Yukon [to grade 9 only]). Publicly funded Catholic schools operate as
separate schools in Canada, meaning they are
constitutionally protected. The constitutional protection enjoyed by separate schools in Canadian provinces is enshrined in
Section 93 of the Constitution. It gives provinces power over education but with restrictions designed to protect minority religious rights. These restrictions resulted from the significant debate between Protestants and Catholics in Canada over whether schools should be parochial or nondenominational. As opposed to the provinces, the right to separate schools is protected in the three federal territories by the federal Acts of
Parliament, which establish those territories. . Retention of separate school boards with public funding was a major issue towards
Canadian Confederation Section 93 was the result of constitutional negotiations in the 1860s. Pre-existing rights for tax-funded minority Catholic and Protestant schools had become a significant point for negotiations surrounding
Canadian Confederation. Retention of separate school boards with public funding was a significant issue, chiefly due to ethnic and religious tension between Canada's (primarily French-speaking) Catholic population and the (primarily English-speaking) Protestant majority. The issue was a subject of debate at the
1864 Quebec Conference. It was finally resolved at the
London Conference of 1866 with a proposal to preserve the separate school systems in Quebec and Ontario. The agreement was written into the Constitution to the effect that the condition of education in each colony (or territory) when it entered Confederation would be constitutionally protected after that. Despite the compromise, the debate over separate Catholic schools continued to be an issue in the new country. Manitoba's adoption of a single, secular school system in 1890 resulted in a national political crisis. The
Manitoba Schools Question was a political crisis in the 1880s and 1890s, revolving around publicly funded separate schools for Catholics and Protestants in Manitoba. The crisis eventually spread to the national level, becoming one of the critical issues in the
federal election of 1896. Due to the close link between religion and language during this period in Canada, the Schools Question represented a deeper issue of French survival as a language and culture in Western Canada. The secular system was upheld, with the guarantee of French instruction later revoked in 1916, leaving English as the only official language in use in the province until it was reinstated in 1985. In the province of Quebec, publicly funded Catholic and Protestant schools were maintained until 1997, when the system was replaced by a linguistic-based secular school system, after passing a constitutional amendment that exempted Quebec from certain conditions of Section 93.
Newfoundland and Labrador also operated separate schools for several Christian denominations, including Catholics, prior to 1997. This school system emerged before Newfoundland entered into Confederation in 1949 and continued until 1997 when the province established a secular public system. The absence of Catholic-Protestant tensions in the provinces of
British Columbia,
New Brunswick,
Nova Scotia, and
Prince Edward Island resulted in no separate school systems emerging in these provinces. in
Toronto is one of many publicly funded French Catholic schools in the province of
Ontario. Presently, the Ontario
Ministry of Education funds 29 English-language Catholic
school boards and 8 French-language Catholic school boards (in addition to 31 English-language secular school boards, 4 French-language secular school boards, and one English-language Protestant school board). Originally, most of the province's secular school boards were Protestant-based. However, it was gradually transformed into a secular public system. Public funding of Catholic schools was initially provided only to
Grade 10 in Ontario. However, in 1985, it was extended to cover the final three years of
secondary education (
Grade 11 to
Grade 13/
OAC). Publicly funded Catholic separate schools are also present in Alberta and Saskatchewan. However, they are not as prevalent as in the province of Ontario. The near-exclusive public funding for a single religious denomination in the province of Ontario has garnered controversy in the last few decades. The controversy led to a
Supreme Court decision in 1996 that held that the provincial education power under section 93 of the
Constitution Act, 1867 is plenary, and is not subject to Charter attack. They also noted it was the product of a historical compromise crucial to Confederation and formed a comprehensive code for denominational school rights that cannot be enlarged through the operation of the
Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The issue has garnered criticism internationally. On November 5, 1999, the
United Nations Human Rights Committee condemned Canada and Ontario for having violated the equality provisions (Article 26) of the
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. The Committee restated its concerns on November 2, 2005, when it published its Concluding Observations regarding Canada's fifth periodic report under the Covenant. The Committee observed that Canada had failed to "adopt steps in order to eliminate discrimination on the basis of religion in the funding of schools in Ontario." It is estimated that 60% of
Residential Schools were operated by the Catholic Church.
United States in
Houston,
Texas Catholic schools form the largest non-public,
Christian school system in the United States. In 2010, 2 million students attended 6,980 schools. Three hundred thirty-one of these are private (not affiliated with a particular parish or diocese). They were first established in the United States during the 19th century with the arrival of English immigrants. American Catholic schools wield great significance in the country as they were instrumental in professing
Catholicism, which has played a critical role in shaping and developing American culture. Enrollment and development of Americans in Catholic schools increased after
World War II,
post-war development and
Cold War in the battle against anti-religious
Communism. Since then, despite American Catholics' widely favorable views of these institutions, there has been a large decline in enrollment predominantly believed to be due to "
suburbanization,
liberalization of education and the rise of the Catholic middle-class." The
United States Conference of Catholic Bishops listed six key responsibilities of Catholic schools. These are: • Encouraging and supporting efforts in Catholic education by fostering the distribution and implementation of both universal Church documents on education as well as related documents developed by the bishops of the United States • Supporting educational efforts in the Church in the United States by developing policies, guidelines, and resources for use by bishops in their dioceses • Providing consultation on educational issues when requested, including advising and representing the bishops • Collaborating with the Committee on Evangelization and Catechesis regarding evangelization and catechesis in Catholic schools and universities • Providing support and advocacy in federal public policy on behalf of Catholic educational institutions from pre-school through
high school levels • Bringing to Catholic education the perspectives and concerns of other cultures and people with special pastoral needs through collaboration with other committees/offices In 2015, the Inner-city Scholarship Fund run by the Archdiocese of New York announced the largest-ever gift of private money to Catholic schooling. Christine and Stephen Schwarzmann gave $40 million to an endowment that will provide 2,900 children per year with scholarships. A noticeable decline in enrollment has stemmed from economic downturn from world events such as the
COVID-19 pandemic. Between the pandemic's origin in 2020 and 2024, the Catholic School system faced a 6.4% decrease in enrollment as well as the closures or mergers of over 200 schools across the nation. Negative economic fluctuation is noted as a major reason for these declining numbers, as families have struggled to balance finances with uncertainty in employment statuses.
South America in
Pichilemu,
Chile The vast majority of
South Americans are
Christians, mostly
Catholics. Over 80% in Hispanic countries and some 65%-70% in Brazil consider themselves Catholic. Catholic educational practices were brought to the
indigenous population of the Inca by Spaniards, Portuguese and
European cultures.
Anticlericalism was established in the 19th century resulting in a temporary alienation between church and state. ==Asia==