Caught short

Dear editor:
The students who are the last of the OAC group have had a far less than optimal experience all the way through their academic lives as the curriculum to which they are/were entitled dissolved before them because teachers—who have to look to their own survival while constantly under attack, stripped of prep time, and unable to be (figuratively) in two places simultaneously—began to develop lessons for the incoming curriculum and “test” (inflict) them on the final OAC class.
The situation is far worse outside urban areas. Consider the situation in rural Ontario, where numbers—not career goals or interest—drastically limit the array of courses offered in the OAC year.
Our local secondary school is the only such institution in a 70-km radius.
As the array shrank, students in the border of the school’s catchment area sought programs in other schools, thereby contributing to the downward spiral of course availability.
Next September, there still will be a “ragged edge” of students who are legally entitled to complete an OAC program but will be hard put to find courses compatible with their goals and interests.
It would be strategically wise for the Ontario government to call the election before the current group of secondary school graduates receive responses to their post-secondary applications.
(Signed),
Bill Atkinson
Sundridge, Ont.