Students graduating 2021/2022 are expected to complete diploma exams. These same students have not written nor learnt how to write a final exam due to COVID-19 restrictions over the past two years. The stress and hard work these students have put into classes going in and out of online schooling is unbelievable. With diplomas set to be mandatory for the 2021/2022 school year, comes a result of invalid scores. Not only will the scores be invalid due to lack of in school learning, but also unfair. With the diplomas being optional last year, the students of 2021 final grades were recorded with school-awarded marks only. Not to mention the curriculum over the past two years has been lessened or even skipped, weakening our knowledge. With that being said, the competition from students of 2021 and 2022 will be incredibly unfair. They are known to be unpredictable and cause stress for students. The pandemic is not suddenly over for students. So why suddenly spring on diplomas! 

This has come as a shock to fellow graduates that we are required to have no choice but write a diploma, when we had no choice but to miss out on almost all of our curriculum, writing final exams, and even learning how to write English and Social Studies exams. We’ve all had no choice but to adapt to learning from home AND in school, back and fourth. No choice to only learn half of the normal curriculum. At least grant us this one choice, of having an optional diploma.