The Toronto District School Board is opting for a 'modified semester' system that would see students take four courses per term.Frank Gunn/The Canadian Press
Some Ontario school boards plan to abandon the “quadmester” system for high schoolers come September, though students will still have to sit through extra-long classes.
The Toronto District School Board and Halton District School Board are both opting for a “modified semester” system that would see students take four courses per term, alternating which two courses they take each week.
The move comes after the Ministry of Education issued a directive that school boards allow only two 150-minute classes each day in order to prevent kids from mixing with too many of their peers, for fear they might spread COVID-19.
The pre-pandemic norm was 300 minutes of class time, usually divided into 60-minute periods.
The quadmester system, put in place for the 2020/2021 school year, saw students take two courses at a time for a period of roughly nine weeks.
The Halton District School Board, for one, has said it would prefer to offer standard semesters without the overlong classes, and that the modified semester system will allow them to switch to such a model partway through the academic year if the provincial government allows it.
Our Morning Update and Evening Update newsletters are written by Globe editors, giving you a concise summary of the day’s most important headlines. Sign up today.