Ottawa's largest school board to drop quadmester scheduling system

High school students in Ottawa's largest school board will bereturning to a relatively normal schedule in the fall.

The Ottawa-Carleton District School Board (OCDSB) announced on Friday that schools will ditch the quadmester scheduling system for the 2021-2022 school year andreplaceit witha modified semester system.

The quadmester system, which was used for the entire 2020-2021 school year, saw students take two courses at a time for a period of roughly nine weeks, after which theyswitched to two new subjects.

In a normal year students would take four courses during a semester, each of which lastedabout twice that time.

But OCDSB is tweaking the semester schedule a bit for the upcoming year.

Rather than taking four classes aday,like they would in a typical semester, students will attend two classes a day with the courses alternatingeach week.

A similar modified semester system will be in place in Toronto for the upcoming school year.

Meanwhile, the Ottawa Catholic School Board (OCSB) plansa split schedule with two quadmesters for the first half of the school year, then a single semester for the second half.

The provincial government saysfinal guidance for the upcoming school year will be given in July based on the advice of the chief medical officer of health.