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The Last Stand of Grade Thirteen

© David Newman

Today, September 3rd, 2002, I start my final year of High School. I will be doing OAC (Ontario Academic Credit) or more commonly known, Grade 13. This will be historic because in a year from now, OAC and its accompanying diploma: Ontario Secondary School Diploma (OSSD) will become a thing of the past.

The first step in dissolving Grade 13, actually happened in 1990 when, well it was discontinued and replaced with OAC, a year which allows you to get your six OACs. Without at least six OACs, one cannot go to University. However some people are capable of getting their OACs in four years by fast tracking or decide that rather than going to University they will simply go to College or to go on the job market.

However, most people in Ontario choose to do grade 13 even if they will choose College instead of University just because it is the thing to do, especially in Academic schools such as Collegiate Institutes rather than technical schools.

Grade 13 has existed in other parts of the country but it has been discontinued years ago.

In the 1990s, the Mike Harris Government and the Ministry of Education of John Snobolen decided to create a crisis in Education and pissed everybody off, teachers and students alike (at least those I knew). They changed a bunch of things that were, fine, made the teachers strike in all Ontario.

In efforts to change the system, Grade 13 was deemed unnecessary and probably said it was hurtful to students or something like that and decided to scrap it, phasing it out for the year 2003. I was the lucky bunch. I was the one who didn't have to cram a five-year programme into four. It wasn't mandatory for me to do voluntary hours to get my diploma. It wasn't mandatory for me to do an Ontario-wide test on which my diploma completely relies on (if you fail you can't pass high school, despite the fact you'd probably do fine in University). I get to drink legally on Graduation night! (I can't believe the age is 21 in the States; that's 3rd year University!)

Plus the new system is utterly confusing. The grading is made on by a score of 1 to 4+. This new grading system makes it very easy to pass, yet very difficult to get high grades. Its supposed to make it easier to understand what your grade means but most people in the new programme need to translate the grade into percentages. Apparently, at least at my school, the highest grade you can get under the 1-4 grading is 98%. So even if you ace a math test, you can't get perfect. I don't know if this applies everywhere but so say those grade 12s who will be graduating with us.

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