Ontario Grade 12 students seeking answers about graduation are facing a test of nerves

Tristan John “Tjay” Jandles knew that applying to university during a global pandemic would likely be mired in confusion. But for the soon-to-be graduate, the most frustrating thing has been getting timely answers to his questions.

“Being a Grade 12 student in 2020 comes with this feeling of uncertainty,” said Jandles, 17, a student at Huron Heights Secondary School in Kitchener.

When he started school in September, his priority was diving into university and financial-aid applications. The dual citizen is interested in post-secondary schools in Canada and the U.S.

Jandles said he hit a snag when trying to apply for the Ontario Student Assistance Program this year. He called OSAP, but no one called back, and when he contacted his guidance counsellors for help, they said they could help him … next month. He eventually reached someone at an American university who could help. But it meant he had to fill in the financial aid form on paper and send it to OSAP via snail mail.

“It seems the priority is everywhere but the 2020 to 2021 students.”

With forcing school boards to adjust , Ontario’s Grade 12 students are facing a graduating year like no other. Virtual school versus in-person, quadmester versus semestered, exams or no exams, courses with grades vs. pass/fail. As students are looking to line up their post-secondary education, the current school year keeps throwing them curveballs.

Some students are concerned they won’t have requisite classes in time for the application deadlines. Others are concerned that without extracurriculars and sports, they won’t stand out. Some students, especially those online, say it’s been difficult to connect to get timely advice.

Amalia Acharya, a 17-year-old virtual student, was frustrated a few weeks ago, when she couldn’t find the criteria for a certain scholarship online. When she emailed the guidance counsellor at her former school, she didn’t hear back for a week.

“It was pretty stressful,” she said, noting her mom is a guidance counsellor who eventually intervened to help.

Ryan Bird of the Toronto District School Board says schools will be providing students information about the application process. For students learning online, the TDSB Virtual Secondary School will be responsible for connecting students with the university and college applicaton centres, Ontario Universities’ Application Centre and the Ontario College Application Service.

Bird says the board, like most others, has been keeping students up to date with the constantly changing requirements for students to graduate, and how their final year of high school will be assessed.

Last week, the province announced that it would give school boards , allowing them to use exam days for in-class instructional time. They said boards could choose other options for final evaluations that are worth up to 30 per cent of students’ final grades.

The TDSB said it will be cancelling exams and “final marks will be based on coursework and in-class end of quadmester assessment of learning.”

The province has also revised the requirement for 40 hours of community service to graduate, decreasing it to 20 hours and adding flexibility in earning hours, such as by helping siblings at home, or even putting hours of paid employment toward the community service hours.

Sophie Pellar, a Grade 12 student at Ursula Franklin Academy in Toronto, said it’s been tough just to keep up with all the changes — which keep coming.

“We don’t even know if we’ll have school in two weeks!” she said. “No one knows what’s going on. We can’t turn to our guidance counsellors or our teachers because they’re just as confused as we are.”

Richard Long, a math teacher and department head at Bayside Secondary School near Belleville, says this year’s graduating students have it a lot harder than in the pre-COVID years.

Because of the way classes are structured this year, into quadmesters or octomesters, rather than typical semesters, high school students are now immersed in one or two subjects at a time, sometimes for several hours a day.

Tutorials at lunch are a thing of the past. So is casually dropping by a teacher’s office to ask a question. Even collaborating with friends has become more complicated because of social distancing. To ease their path, Long said, he’s giving his students various opportunities to excel. If they don’t do well on one test or assignment, they know they’ll have other chances.

“It’s a difficult year for these kids,” he said. “It’s cognitive overload. Some have tremendous anxiety, and with increased anxiety it’s been difficult to learn. Teachers are sensitive to that.”

Universities also understand the circumstances, says Heather Lane, executive director at the Ontario Universities’ Application Centre, which processes undergraduate and professional applications for admission to Ontario’s universities.

“Universities are very well aware of what is going in schools,” said Lane. “And we have the experience of last spring around some of the challenges and institutions having to make pivots or offer extensions based on what was happening,” she said.

Lane says despite the unconventional year, the university deadline applications have not changed: applications are still due Jan. 15, universities will aim to have offers out to students by the end of May, and students can start accepting offers by June 1.

“Those dates will likely not change, because there is no impact on what’s happening with COVID on those,” said Lane. “The challenge becomes around deadline dates that have to do with the school and school boards submitting grades to OUAC to be passed on to the universities,” she said.

Lane said that last year, when schools shut down in March, “we had to have a lot of conversations with the Ministry of Education and our university partners around grades, deadlines, and there were some extensions for schools to get grades in … and we and the universities did our best to be as flexible as possible.”

She said the challenge this year is that some students are in a quadmester program — where the school year is divided into four blocks and take two subjects at a time — and “in some cases, some students may have not even started a required course at the time they’re making a decision,” she said.

“Each university will have to determine how they will handle that … but I suspect, as they were last year, they will work to be flexible,” she said, including making conditional offers until the courses are completed.

Lane said OUAC is also in the process of sending out registration PINs to students, some may be getting them in the mail directly, while others may be getting them from their school board.

Lane said that for specific program requirements, students should contact the university, or talk to their guidance counsellors. But if they have questions around the application process, they can ask the OUAC.

“York University understands the stress prospective students are under due to the difficulty resulting from the global pandemic,” said Yanni Dagonas, the school’s deputy spokesperson.

“When a student is unable to obtain their final exam results or achieve a pre-requisite due to extenuating circumstances caused by the global pandemic, we encourage them to contact our admissions office so we can provide appropriate guidance,” he said. “Our goal is always to work with prospective students to find a solution for them to pursue their post-secondary goals.”

Others universities like Western have set up a COVID-19 info page to give students more details on how to apply.

The Ministry of Colleges and Universities says it “is engaged in ongoing communication with the Ontario University Application Centre (OUAC) to discuss how to continue to support students as they apply to postsecondary education programs, considering the unique circumstances of this school year.”

They said the Ontario Student Assistance Program application for an upcoming school year was launched in May, and the deadline and eligibility criteria have not changed for the 2020-21 school year.

With files from Kristin Rushowy

Noor Javed is a Toronto-based reporter covering current affairs in the York region for the Star. Follow her on Twitter:

Michele Henry is a Toronto-based reporter for the Star, writing health and education stories. Follow her on Twitter: