[totony]

This. But this is not because "good students are mostly in private school", it is because public school is just bad.

I am a Quebec resident and I have been, for most of my high school, in a private school. I went one year to a public school: the level of education was SO poor and the students' motivation was the lowest I had ever seen.

There is an huge disrepency between public/private sector and people are trying to cut down private school funding[1].

I've seen both, and public school is a disgrace, no kid should have to go through this. I've seen teachers insulting students (and vice versa), teachers being hangover on a class day and telling the students to read their book, teachers raging against students (and vice versa) and just classes being generally content-less.

[FR] [1] http://www.lapresse.ca/le-soleil/opinions/editoriaux/201407/...

EDIT: Not saying we should abolish public school, but it HAS to improve. My experience (and what I have seen of people going into higher eduction) was horrible. Private school has good students because it has (majorly) good teachers (and some selection, I admit), whereas public school has a dominance of bad teachers.