From: The Encyclopedia of Canada's Peoples/Croats/Anthony W. Rasporich
Most Croatian Canadian children have attended English- and French-language schools, usually in the Catholic system. They thereby acquired English quickly, even though Croatian was most often the language of the home. Some attempts at setting up Croatian-language schools were initiated in the late 1930s, but women who were approached to teach lacked the appropriate skills. Canadian immigration officials discouraged attempts to secure teachers from Croatia for language and music instruction. Females were not generally expected to go beyond grade eight, and males usually moved into technical education and trades in the pre-war generation, apart from a few who became lawyers and architects.
Post-war immigrants had a better education. Those who entered Canada under the post-1967 point system were better schooled and trained. From the 1950s on expectations grew with a vastly increased educational infrastructure at all levels. Zoran Pejović observes: “Colloquially speaking, almost every Croatian parent encountered in the preparation of this study exclaimed how proud they would be if their child became a physician, dentist or a lawyer.” Yet Croatian children enjoyed slightly less education than the average Canadian in 1988 and ranked last among all five eastern European immigrant groups studied and fourteenth among seventeen immigrant groups, with female participation rates for post-secondary education slightly higher than those for males.
Croatian-language programs have been quite effective. Saturday schools, with community-based volunteer instructors, began in Port Arthur, Sudbury, and Toronto in the 1950s and 1960s. Toronto’s schools expanded to regular annual enrolments of 500–700 through the 1980s after integration into the Metropolitan Separate School Board’s heritage-language program. Croatian-language schools served nearly a thousand students in nearby Mississauga, with others in Oakville, Hamilton, and Sudbury serving fewer students. In Hamilton and Kitchener language training extended into senior high school. The first chair for Croatian language and literature was established at the University of Waterloo. At least ten other language schools were set up across Canada as part of the Croatian Schools of Canada network. Several other universities (Toronto, York, Carleton, British Columbia, and Victoria) offered Croatian-language courses. Students at York University helped establish a Croatian Student Centre in the university’s new Student Centre.
