I just came back from signing up for Socials 11 and Biology 11 at my online school. Yes, they do have an actual building. When I asked to add them to my course load, I was politely handed two stacks of stapled sheets. The secretary then proceeded to tell me she could not sign me up until I completed these exams, which are just to “judge where I am”. Okay, fine. I did one for Math about two months ago. It had six easy questions. That was acceptable. This, as I found out, was not.

I opened up the sheets: Essay after essay, question after question. There was literally 10 pages back to back with work to fill out. I bet it would’ve taken anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour, each package (remember I had two). While not specifically covering any particular topic in the coursework, these were basically mini provincial exams. While I don’t really have that much against the controversial provincial exams themselves (in terms of their content), considering this “entrance exam” didn’t count for anything, it was more than useless. It was just an absolute waste of my time.

Furthermore, consider this fact.  Socials 11 is a required class to graduate. While they say I will not be accepted into the class until I complete the entrance exam, how in the world is that legal? It isn’t and the whole concept is contradictory. It’s not like I have to take entrance exams in regular high school. The closest thing there are those stupid “what’s your name, what’s your phone number” lists that teachers make you fill out during the first class, despite the fact that all that information is easily available downstairs in the office! But I digress.

These entrance exams are an utter waste of time, not just for me, but for the teacher too! Why should I, or the teacher, complete/mark this long mini-exam that has barely anything to do with the coursework and doesn’t at all count for marks. It’s just plain stupid. And that is why I gave up past the first page and just started scribbling in letters and words on every line. Even that 5 minutes was far too much to spent on something so ridiculous.

Luckily, I brought the case up with my principal when he was signing some paperwork for my passport. He completely understood what I say saying. Apparently, to combat funding issues surrounded with the huge number of people who are signing up for online summer school but not following through, they had to make things a bit harder for you to sign up. Just a few more hoops… So when my school submitted a short entrance test to the Ministry, they replied with “it is not enough”. And so when end up with what we now have, a mini provincial exam that is counterproductive for every participant.

Thankfully, my principal, the smart man he is, quickly scanned through my papers, agreed with me on the absurdity of the entrance exams, and filled out the rest of the forms, bypassing any potentially nosy rule-abiding secretaries.

It’s insane knowing that in this day and age of the poor state of education, the government believes in adding more bureaucracy to the process. It’s a thickheaded idea, and the opposite of what we should be doing to improve schools.

Sphere: Related Content