Education is an essential part of people’s lives and today, there exist many options for getting it. The school system consists of public, private or even home schools, and every parent can choose the variant they consider the most appropriate one. Public schools seem to be the most convenient variant since they are free for all students, and the educational system is regulated by the government. At the same time, when speaking about public schools, it is necessary to consider not only the advantages but disadvantages they possess as well since it helps get a broader outlook on the system.
The first and the most important negative side effect of the public schools concerns the fact that it is difficult for the students to get individualized education in them because of the large class sizes. Since public schools are quite popular in Canada, and many people enroll their children in them, the number of students in classes is often more than ten or even fifteen. That is why it may be hard for teachers to pay attention to all students during the lessons and individually explain the most difficult aspects of a topic to everyone. Thus, some parents may have concerns about the quality of the knowledge their children get in school and look for alternative variants for getting an education.
Apart from that, since public schools are funded by the government, they depend on teaching methods and strategies, educational policies and programs that are legally approved. It may complicate the process of knowledge transfer from teachers to students because the former have to do a lot of paper job and stick to the textbooks and teaching materials approved by the government. In addition, governmental control over the system of public schools sometimes makes it hard for the teaching personnel to bring innovations into the educational programs. It regards not only up-to-date theoretical and practical materials but also the implementation of modern technologies into the teaching process or introducing new disciplines into the curriculum.
Both disadvantages of the public schools described above are quite evident, but not many people take them into account just because they are so simple that people do not realize the fact that they exist. At the same time, they may weaken the educational system and negatively influence the quality of knowledge the students get. The lack of an individualistic approach because of a large number of students leads to poor understanding in those who need more time and explanation to fully grasp the material. The extreme dependence on government and its funding may also be considered an obstacle that prevents schools from implementing new technologies or taking different manuals for the educational process.
Taking into consideration everything mentioned above, it is possible to conclude that the system of public schools, being the most popular one in Canada, possesses several disadvantages that need to be taken into account. The large number of students attending public schools causes a lack of individualism in learning. It means that the teacher is unable to spend time on every student when explaining a topic during the lesson, which sometimes leads to students’ poor understanding of the material. Apart from that, the extreme dependence on the government and its education-related policies makes it hard for public schools to implement new technologies into the learning process, which negatively influences the quality of teaching.