Editing Education in Quebec (section)

===Private schools===
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Quebec has the highest proportion of children going to private schools in North America. The phenomenon is not restricted to the well-to-do. Many middle- and lower-income families send their children to private schools. The government of Quebec gives a pro-rata subsidy for each child to any private school which meets its standards and follows its prescriptions, reducing tuition costs to approximately 30% of non-subsidized private schools.

Most of the private schools are secondary institutions, though there are a few primary schools, most of them serving precise religious or cultural groups such as [[Armenian Apostolic Church|Armenian Orthodox Christians]] or certain Jewish faiths.

Approximately 17% of the high school population of Quebec currently attends a private high school. The figure is even higher in urban centres such as Montreal, where 30% of high school students are in the private sector.<ref>[http://www.ourkids.net/quebec-schools.php Learning in Quebec]. ourkids.net. Retrieved Apr 25, 2018.</ref>  A study released in August 2004 by the [[Quebec Ministry of Education]] revealed that, over the preceding five years, the private sector had grown by 12% while the public sector had shrunk 5.6%, with a slightly steeper rate in the last year.

Private secondary schools usually select their students by having them go through their own scholastic exams and by making a study of the entire primary school record.

The Quebec public sector teachers' unions oppose any form of subsidy to private schools. They claim (1) that private schools select only the brightest and most capable students and reject children with learning difficulties, and argue (2) that by doing this they leave a burden to the public sector. Private schools usually have teachers who are not unionized, or who belong to associations not affiliated with the main body of Quebec public sector teachers' unions. The debate over the subsidies has been going on for several decades.