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 | This page in a nutshell: High schools/secondary school articles must be able to meet the relevant guidelines for notability |
PerWP:SCHOOLRFC, articles onhigh schools andsecondary schools, like any other topic, must be able to meet notability standards such as those atWikipedia:Notability andWikipedia:Notability (organizations and companies). They should also meet the standards ofverifiability, and unreferenced material can and should be challenged up to and including removal from the article.
Different countries use different terms for schools which providesecondary education. The age range of children taught at such schools can also vary considerably. The terms used include:high schools,secondary schools,middle schools,grammar schools,comprehensive schools,academies,gymnasiums, andlycées. Sometimes there are multiple types in one country.
The term 'college' is often used as a synonym for a post-18tertiary education establishment such as a university (although constituent schools within universities may also be called 'colleges'). Note, however, that in the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and many other places with an English-speaking background, the term college often refers tofurther education establishments that award the same post-16 qualifications as a secondary school with asixth form. The word college is also included in the name of many secondary schools in these countries (for example,Brighton College andFettes College).
In France acollège is a school which provides the first level of secondary education afterprimary school.
A high school/secondary school is defined as a school that provides the earliest recognized certification of educational attainment, whether referred to as a school-leaving certificate,high school diploma,High School Leaving Certificate,General Certificate of Secondary Education, orIB Diploma Programme. To be considered a genuine high school/secondary school, the school must either be a government-run school or an independent school that is authorised by a recognised accreditation body.
Independent sources that meetWP:GNG andWP:ORG can almost always be found for any government-run school, and, in developed countries, for all but the smallest independent schools. High schools/secondary schools are generally significant in their local communities, and thus feature in the local media (particularly in smaller towns). As with other types of articles, we do not delete an article because editors have not yetcited their sources, but only if there isno evidence that independent, reliable sources exist to establish notability. The school's own website, information the school submits to other websites or organizations, and the school district or governing authority's publications arenot considered independent sources, even though they may bereliable sources.
In major developed countries, manyindependent, reliable sources about schools can be found on the Internet, beyond the scope of the trivial. However, outside those countries, and particularly for countries in Asia and Africa, Internet coverage is poor. Where this is the case then, to avoidsystemic bias, local sources should be sought. This may involve researching local media, for example at a neighbouring library. Unreliable and non-independent sources that merely repeat information provided by the school's administration should be avoided.
For schools in countries where English is not the first language there might be a lack of English-language sources, even though multiple reliable sources will exist in the local language. Although English-language sources are preferred where available they are not an essential requirement (seeWikipedia:Verifiability#Non-English_sources). Theinterlanguage links should be checked to see if articles have been written on the school in other languages. If necessary translation help can be requested atWikipedia:Translators available.
There are thousands of high schools for which no significant coverage inindependent reliable sources has been published. These schools are often small, new, or not considered true schools (for example, being homeschools or being businesses that offer sports, arts, or tutoring classes).
However, being non-notable does not mean that Wikipedia may not include any information about the school. Deletion discussions about such schools commonly end with a recommendation tomerge the verifiable material into another article.Please don't use theWikipedia:Articles for deletion process if the best outcome is a merge! Articles can be boldly merged together by any editor, or you can use the process atWikipedia:Proposed merges to discuss a merge. You can merge unwanted articles about schools into pages such as these:
This is also what commonly happens with schools serving young children.