High school finals cancelled, no classrooms through May

Ontario high school students won’t have final exams this year, Ottawa trustees were told Tuesday at a briefing on how COVID-19 is impacting schools.

Administrators also confirmed that high school students at the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board cannot have their marks fall below what they were the last day that schools were open on March 13. After schools closed because of the threat of the novel coronavirus, students shifted to online learning as much as possible.

The Ministry of Education issued a memo on Tuesday saying there would be no final exams for high school students.

“In order to maximize instructional time for students during this unprecedented time, Minister Lecce has directed that all remaining professional activity days and examination days for the 2019-2020 school year are to be used for instruction,” said the April 28 memo sent to school boards by Lecce and Education Deputy Minister Nancy Naylor.

Trustees at the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board meeting on Tuesday said they have been fielding lots of questions about how much work high school students should be doing at home and how it will be assessed and graded.

Any work high school students do until the end of the year can improve their grades but not lower them, board superintendent Nadia Towaij explained at a meeting held by video conference.

Only students in Grade 12 will be given midterm marks, which will be issued May 1.

Student trustee Ganaaboute Gagné, who goes to Glebe Collegiate, said he received more than 100 texts from students who are confused about how their final grades will be determined. A letter sent to high school students by the board didn’t help, he said, calling it “a little dense, a little unreadable.”

Trustees also heard about variances in the amount of work being assigned by teachers. The Ministry of Education says high school students should spend a total of three hours a week on each semestered course — including instructional time and schoolwork done on their own.

Towaij said the board is working with teachers and analyzing the results of an online consultation to improve instruction and find the right balance. Many secondary students are finding, for example, that assignments that might have taken them an hour in a regular classroom are taking two or three hours at home because they don’t have the benefit of a teacher answering questions or fellow students to collaborate with, she said.

Director of Education Camille Williams-Taylor reminded trustees that schooling for the board’s 76,500 students came to a “grinding halt” when buildings closed.

“And then we came back a week later to say, ‘Let’s do continuity of learning,’ and that has never, ever been contemplated before . ... So we haven’t always got it perfectly right. There are things we have overlooked, or still have to learn about. People have been remarkable about not just sharing the challenges but sharing appreciation as well.”

Education Minister Stephen Lecce has also told boards to ensure that no Grade 12 student will fail to graduate because of COVID -19.

As for when students might return to class, that depends on advice from public health authorities, Lecce has said.

For now, schools are closed until the end of May. Lecce has said he doesn’t expect the school year to be extended into the summer, although he can’t rule it out.

Williams-Taylor said she expects that when schools reopen, it will be with “extreme caution” and some type of “staged re-entry.”

“People are not just going to be opening schools and saying, ‘Have at it,’” Williams-Taylor told trustees.

In other jurisdictions that are reopening schools or considering doing so, measures have been adopted to ensure physical distancing, including limiting the number of students in classrooms and playgrounds and staggering school hours.