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WHAT GRADE 13 WILL DEL DUCA BRING BACK?

COLUMNIST SYLVIA SUTHERLAND WONDERS WHAT FORM OF GRADE 13 THE PROVINCIAL LIBERAL LEADER HAS IN MIND TO BRING BACK

SYLVIA SUTHERLAND Sylvia Sutherland was Peterborough's mayor from 1985 to 1991 and from 1997 to 2006. In Grade 13, she failed her final Latin exam.

Ontario Liberal leader Steven Del Duca is talking about bringing back Grade 13 to allow students to make up for time lost because of COVID-19. It would be optional for a minimum of four years.

Just what Grade 13 is he planning to bring back? The original one, that today still sends shivers down the spines of those of us who experienced it, or its temporary replacement, the Ontario Academic Credit (OAC)?

The original Grade 13 was in place from 1921 to 1988, making Ontario the only province in the country to have a fifth year of secondary school. It was introduced when Ontario was still a largely agrarian society with three universities — Toronto, Queen's and McMaster. Grade 13 was meant to be equivalent of first year university, resulting in a three rather than a four-year BA. It also kept university-bound kids home working on the farm for an extra year.

For students, and probably teachers as well, it was a pressure cooker. The final exams were standardized across the province, all written on the same day, and all marked centrally in Toronto. Your name and school were on the back page of each exam, guaranteeing fairness.

Your marks determined whether you would get into a university, would qualify for a scholarship, or should have perhaps enrolled in the four-year stream in Grade 9 instead.

In classrooms across the province, the focus of teaching the moment you entered a Grade 13 classroom was the possible nine exams you would write when you left.

The academic standard was high and, whether university-bound or not, you benefitted from that all your life. So did the universities. They knew what they were getting academically with Ontario-educated first-year students. I once had a Trent professor tell me that he had to rewrite all his first-year history lectures when Grade 13 ended.

In 1989, the rigour and demands of Grade 13 were replaced by the less centralized OAC system, based on a series of courses needed for graduation. It was phased out beginning in 1999, and finally eliminated in 2003.

Despite my spinal shivers when I think of the pressure we were under and how much of our futures depended on those final exams, I have always thought the original Grade 13 had a lot to recommend it educationally. I doubt, however, this exacting experience is what Del Duca has in mind. Times, standards, needs, and sufferance have changed.

OPINION

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2022-05-19T07:00:00.0000000Z

2022-05-19T07:00:00.0000000Z

https://communitynews.pressreader.com/article/281509344793566

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