From a young age, youth are asked a big question: what do you want to be when you grow up? As a child, the options seem limitless.
As a high school senior, the pressure begins to build up and options seem much more limited. Grade point averages and credits may prevent you from getting into programs that you want to pursue in university. Why should 17-year-olds be forced to make a decision that will define the rest of their lives? Are Ontario high schools doing their best to send off their students prepared for university?
As a recent high school graduate, I can sympathize with all the students who were applying to a post-secondary institution. There are many recollections of spending hours in the guidance office discussing my options for various programs. After many panic attacks and reading various university booklets, I was lucky to realize that journalism is what I had always really wanted to pursue.
Ontario high schools send off their graduates ill-prepared for a university education. The Ministry of Education eliminated OAC (Ontario Academic Credit, otherwise known as grade 13) back in 2003. According to the National Union of Public and General Employees, throughout the four years that the province spent abolishing OAC, the drop out rates soared to 40 per cent (an increase from 22 per cent in 1999 and 32 per cent in 2003 alone). Students across Ontario were struggling with this new change implemented, especially in grade 10 math. Once OAC was completely eradicated, it left 49,000 students without a high school diploma.
OAC provided high school students with the help and support they needed to be prepared for university. With my high school experience, I found that I didn’t get nearly as much help as I could have had. It was constantly a confusing battle between the guidance office and myself, trying to figure out which credits I needed to get into the programs I was interested in and whether or not they’d fit in my schedule.
Ontario should model their high school education system after Quebec’s. Quebec offers their students a program similar to OAC called CEGEP (Collège D’enseignement Général et Professionnel, which is translated into College of General and Vocational Education). Both private and public colleges in Quebec can be referred to as CEGEPs; however, they differ from a DEC (Diplôme D’études Collégiales, translated into a College Education Diploma).
A CEGEP degree is required for Quebec students to be able to continue into university, unless it is a mature student entering university (the minimum age of a mature student is 21). CEGEP takes two years to complete, which explains why an undergraduate program and high school both are one year shorter in Quebec compared to elsewhere in Canada.
This program makes post secondary education easier to access and sends students to university better prepared. Giving students an extra year to dabble in different areas and discover what they enjoy may help them make that “big decision” as to what they want to do with their future.
Throughout university, 50 per cent of students will change their major — some may even switch them two or three times. This not only puts students under financial stress, as it becomes increasingly difficult to finish university in the allotted four-year span, but students also become psychologically stressed.
Carleton makes it easy for students to switch majors and keep most of their credits, but it isn’t the same for every university. The transfer of credits can become difficult, especially if you switch majors drastically (for example, going from a music major to a biology major).
Ontario needs to consider implementing OAC into their secondary education system again. It would make the transition to university much simpler. It may increase the amount of students who also decide to take their studies further into post-secondary rather than jumping into the world of work.