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As a student in an education system that is
floundering, I was glad to read Mg16's article "Miami-Dade High Schools: How
Fast is Too Fast?", because she pointed out how many school boards are cutting out the last
year of high school. Are we being swindled of something important that belongs
to us and our parents, the taxpayers? This is BabyPowdr here, to tell you about OAC
at Ontario Secondary Schools.
OAC was the fifth year of high school in Ontario. When I started grade nine, that
was the last real year for OAC. That meant
it'd be twice as hard for students applying for university to get in. Twice as
many students were graduating in one year from thousands of schools, some big,
some small. Universities now had to choose. Do they want OAC-educated kids who
had taken an extra year at high school, or
just grade twelve graduates?
It used to be that OAC was a gold star to your
name, but now, with changing times, universities decided they needed a new standard.
When I graduate next year, there is a chance I will be competing to get into a
university with some of the people who graduated three years before. A lot more students
than expected have gotten in to college, but not all of them. The ones that did
get in were stuck with
overcrowded universities. Those schools just weren't ready for this new flow of students.
Truth is, there are still people applying. Good Grades = Acceptance, at a good
school.
Some of you may be wondering what OAC is. It replaced grade 13. OAC formally
allowed for the completion of schooling after only 12 grades, where previously
this was an exceptional circumstance. To enter university, students were
required to complete 30 high school courses, 6 of which must be at the OAC
level; students who completed these requirements in 4 years of high school were
permitted to graduate. Most students continued to stay in high school the extra
year. But, as a cost-cutting move, the
Ontario Conservative Party announced the elimination of OAC soon after their election to office in 1995,
scheduling the final OAC courses for eight years later. The extra year was replaced with an extra ten
days of schooling in each lower grade. Also, most Ontario universities which had
offered three-year Bachelor's programs moved to require four years.
So, from Kindergarten to grade 12, you have a total of 130 extra days. A school
year is 190 days, and 130 is pretty close to that. So, our Kindergarten
students are bringing home spelling and math homework at what was previously a grade two or three level. It may seem unfair now, but in the long run, maybe these
kids will have it better than those of us who went to Kindergarten to eat
cookies, listen to stories, play house and sleep all afternoon.
BabyPowdr, headed out the door to school, disagreeing every day with the education
system.
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