Ottawa Valley Elementary Schools

The Fraser Institute School Rankings have been released, an annual event that has parents eager to discern precisely where their children's schools rank. Some are disappointed, others elated. Most people use the schools close to where they live, for their children's educational needs, and it's more or less a toss-up whether that particular school is an outstanding one, stimulating children's ingrained curiosity, sending them well on the road to learning. Or otherwise.

There are, of course, private schools, religious schools that cater both to a child's need to learn all the subjects required to become educated in the basic skills of the traditional three Rs, along with subjects like geography, history, social studies, and gymnastics. Augmenting those with a careful and studied grounding in the traditions of various religions, and the cultures that attend to them. It's interesting that parochial schools have evolved over time.

At one time they existed as addendums to conventional schools, where children would attend them 'after school hours'. With the exception, within Canada, of the two languages; French- or English-language schools, Catholic or secular (quietly Protestant originally) to where we are now, with traditional recognition under the regular school system and their separate boards reflecting their agendas.

Where once the Catholic schools had garnered a reputation for superior conveyance of education to their charges, along with an emphasis on discipline seen as lacking in the secular, non-denominational public schools - and parents wanting a more 'solid' education for their children despite not being Catholic, would send their children there, if accepted - that distinction appears to have evaporated.

Excellence within the separate schools appears to have languished, over time. Now, under the rankings seen as a result of academic performance as measured by the Fraser Institute, public schools are seen to do just as well as separate schools, and some separate schools are ranked as dismally as some of the poorly-rated public schools.

What is interesting is that one particular private religious school stands out as providing what appears to be an excellent education for their children in their care. The Abraar School, owned by the Muslim Association of Canada, and run by a board of volunteers, offering a normal curriculum along with a religious underpinning, has been given an impressively high rating.

Out of a total potential of 10.0 for excellence in teaching, this Islamic separate school within the Ottawa area ranks fourth with an 8.9 overall rating. Spectacularly good, in fact. Considering that some of the worst-performing schools in the system have been rated as low as 1.2 in the performance of their grades 3 and 6 students in academic performance.

And in outlying schools, in Arnprior and Merrickville, there were two schools rated 10 where elementary schools representing both public and separate schools had outstanding student performance. With others, in Brockville, Long Sault, Perth, Russell, Kemptville, Pembroke, Petawawa, Mallorytown, Dalkeith and Gananoque coming in not far behind.

So there is no reason to think that children living in small towns cannot obtain an education comparable to and perform as well as their greater-urban-density counterparts. These schools set the standards to which all other schools should be aspiring.

It is a fact of life, however, that wherever there is a high prevalence of immigrant children struggling with a second language, and children from socially and economically disadvantaged backgrounds, this will be translated as poorer overall performance, as these children struggle to advance their knowledge despite their disadvantages.