21 Essential Questions to Ask About Canada’s OSSD Program

What Is the OSSD and Why Does Choosing the Right School Matter?

The Ontario Secondary School Diploma (OSSD) is one of the most widely known and internationally recognized provincial high school diplomas in Canada. Students who want to earn an OSSD while continuing their education at a high school in Türkiye are faced with several school and program options. However, offering the same diploma does not necessarily mean offering the same educational experience. How courses are delivered, how students are assessed, academic planning, access to teachers, graduation monitoring, and total costs can vary significantly from one institution to another.

Especially after the pandemic, alternatives to traditional face-to-face education developed around the world, and both online and distance education became increasingly popular. Ontario International High School (OIHS) was founded in 2021 to offer the OSSD curriculum to Turkish students and enrolled its first students in September 2022. Of course, there were already high schools around the world offering the OSSD through distance or online education in 2022, but to the best of my knowledge, there was no institution specifically focused on Türkiye.

The years 2022 and 2023 were a significant learning period for me. Rather than approaching this field with assumptions based on my previous experience, I chose to become a student of the system myself. When I first encountered the OSSD, I was told that completing six Grade 12 courses was enough to earn the diploma. I then looked into the details, learned how the system actually works, and developed our programs as the different needs of students emerged. The 14-course Medium Program we created for students targeting public universities in Europe is one example.

The fact that many of our first students came from the Yetkin Gençler community made an important contribution to our ability to learn and develop the program together with our students. We owe a debt of gratitude to all the students and parents who trusted us at the beginning of this journey.

As awareness of the OSSD has increased in Türkiye, we have seen new institutions enter the market. I believe OIHS’s visible success and the demand it has helped create have also played a role in this development.

My first book was about choosing a university: Üniversite Seçerken (Choosing a University). I believe a similar approach can also be useful when choosing a high school. First, you identify the non-negotiable requirements and eliminate options that do not meet them. Then, you compare the remaining schools according to a set of predetermined criteria.

What Are the Criteria?

A. Trust, Authorization (Accreditation), and Transparency

• Trust: I have repeatedly observed that parents place great importance on trust when choosing an educational institution. This becomes even more important when the institution provides distance or online education and does not have a long history. Who founded the school and what kind of educational experience the founders have are important factors when evaluating trustworthiness.
• Accreditation, Ministry registration, and authorization: Is the school listed among private schools registered with the Ontario Ministry of Education? What is its BSID number? Is it authorized to grant credits and issue diplomas? What does its latest inspection report say?

B. Educational Model and Academic Process

• **Educational system: **Does the school provide live, synchronous distance education, or does it use an asynchronous online model in which students mainly teach themselves? Are courses taught by subject-specialist teachers? Are course videos, presentations, publications, and other educational materials prepared by teachers, or are they generated by artificial intelligence? Can students communicate regularly with a teacher?
• Language proficiency: How is an applicant’s language proficiency assessed?
• Credit transfer: How are courses completed in Türkiye transferred? Are lower-grade courses that are required for graduation but are not normally offered in Türkiye, such as Civics, Career Studies, and Technology, provided?
• Non-course graduation requirements: How does the school manage the Ontario literacy requirement (OSSLT), 40 hours of community involvement activities and projects, and the requirement to complete two online learning credits at the student’s own pace?
• **Curriculum flexibility: **Can students choose their courses? Can a student’s program be changed if their academic goals change? Is there a limit on the number of courses that can be taken in one term? Can students take courses during the summer?
• Assessment: How is student performance evaluated? What weight is given to assignments, projects, and exams?
• Technology: What technological infrastructure does the school use? Which learning management system and student information system are used? Are students trained to use these systems effectively?

C. Administration, Teachers, and Student Support

• Academic leadership: Who is the school principal? Who is the vice-principal? How experienced are they?
• Institutional management: How professional is the administrative team? How many staff members work full-time? How many are based in Türkiye and how many are based in Canada?
• Teachers: Who are the teachers? What are their areas of expertise? How much experience do they have?
• Methodology: What methods does the school use to help students succeed? Can students contact teachers outside scheduled class hours?
• Guidance: What mentoring and guidance services does the school provide?
• Skills development: How does the school develop students’ competencies and prepare them socially and emotionally for university?

D. Students and Outcomes

• **Students: **How many students are currently enrolled? Which cities and schools do they come from? Does the institution have partner schools in Türkiye?
• Completion rate: What percentage of students who begin the program successfully complete it?
• **Graduates: **How many students has the school graduated so far? Which universities have graduates attended? What are their main destination countries?

E. Fees, Contracts, and Accessibility

• Fees: What is the total cost of the diploma program? Which services require additional payment? Where are payments made and in which currency?
• **Financial flexibility: **Can payments be made in installments? What are the cancellation and refund policies?
• Office in Türkiye: Does the school have an office in Türkiye? Is it possible to meet staff members face-to-face? Does the school organize in-person events?

Finding answers to these questions is not easy. However, choosing an educational pathway for your child is an important decision, and I recommend that you do not make that decision before finding satisfactory answers.

If you cannot find answers to these questions about a school, I would advise you to question whether that school deserves your trust. In my view, transparency is extremely important.

My recommendation is to ask us these questions as well during our webinars or individual meetings. I will answer only a few of them briefly here.

Trust and Authorization (Accreditation)

I am the founder of the school. I worked as an academic in Canada for 20 years. After returning to Türkiye, I served as Dean at Bilkent University, founding President of Özyeğin University, and founding Dean and Vice Rector at MEF University.

I also served as Chair of the Academic Board of the İstanbul Erkek Liseliler Education Foundation for seven years, during which we established İELEV High School. In addition, I designed a 21st-century skills awareness program for high school and university students through Yetkin Gençler, and over the past 11 years, we have delivered this program to more than 20,000 young people.

I have written three books, the latest of which, Sistem Çaresiz, Eğitim Sizde (The System Is Helpless, Education Is in Your Hands, Doğan Publishing, 2021), contains a serious critique of the education system. In fact, many of the founding principles behind this school can be found in that book.

Ontario International High School is a private school registered in the Ontario Ministry of Education system with BSID number 668712 and is authorized to offer the secondary school courses required for the OSSD.

We are not an intermediary organization or an educational consultancy. Our core business is education. We create individualized academic plans for students and closely monitor every course they take.

Educational System

The Ontario Ministry of Education makes an important distinction between distance education and online education.

In distance education, classes are conducted on specified days and at specified times with the teacher participating live. Students attend class and interact with both their teacher and classmates.

In the online model, on the other hand, students generally progress at their own pace and largely independently. They are provided with videos, files, or other digital materials and are expected to manage most of the learning process themselves.

As an educator, I do not believe that a model in which high school students are expected to progress entirely on their own, without regular interaction with their teachers and classmates, is pedagogically appropriate.

The choice is of course yours. However, when comparing programs, make sure you ask about the number of live class hours, access to teachers, frequency of feedback, classroom interaction, and whether students are actually monitored throughout the learning process.

We are not an online course provider that simply gives students videos and files and expects them to complete everything independently.

We are a distance-learning high school where subject-specialist teachers conduct live classes, students work on projects with classmates, give presentations, and each student’s academic development is closely monitored.

Especially for high school students, I do not recommend programs in which the entire educational process is based on self-directed learning materials.

Institutional Management

We have both full-time and part-time staff in Canada and Türkiye.

Our full-time Vice-Principal, Director of Operations, and Director of Technology are based in our Toronto office.

Our full-time Director of Admissions, Director of Student Affairs, and Student Success Specialist work at our office in Maslak Uniq, Istanbul.

We also have five additional part-time staff members working in our Türkiye office.

Students and parents can schedule appointments to meet our team face-to-face. We also organize family gatherings with students and parents in Ankara and Istanbul at various times throughout the year.

Photos and short biographies of all our teachers are available on our website at teachers.

Our Students and Graduates

As of August 2026, 165 students are enrolled at our school.

By the end of this summer, the total number of our graduates will reach 41.

A list of the universities to which our graduates have been admitted and where they are currently continuing their education is available on our website at graduates page.

Ontario International High School Program Fees

Apart from the program fee, the only additional fees we charge are for course retakes and additional courses.

For our students in Türkiye, we do not charge many of the additional fees that we see at other schools, such as:

• application fees,
• language examination fees,
• pre-registration fees,
• registration fees,
• transcript fees,
• diploma fees,
• graduation ceremony fees.

Program fees and installments are paid in Canadian dollars directly into our corporate bank account in Canada.

Installment terms, cancellation conditions, and refund policies are also clearly stated in the enrollment agreement.

Final Thoughts

The purpose of this article is to help families ask the right questions about the OSSD and make it easier to compare different educational models offered under the same diploma name.

Ask these questions both to us and to other schools. Request clear, written, and verifiable answers.

We are ready to answer all of these questions — and many more — and to explain our educational model transparently.

Once you place the answers side by side, making a decision will become much easier.

If you are looking for an experienced and trustworthy school, strong academic and institutional leadership, subject-specialist teachers, and an educational model that does not leave students on their own, we believe Ontario International High School is the right place for you.