As we all know, after the winter break all Ontario schools switched to online learning until at least January 17th, 2022. Thames Valley District School Board (TVDSB) has announced that students grades from before the break cannot drop, and other boards are following suit. The students of TDSB believe that the Toronto District School Board should do the same. 

The TDSB not following along poses several disadvantages for its students. Firstly, many students were in person before the break and now have to completely switch online. This is much different from last year where we transferred from a semi-online model to fully online. Teachers now have to adjust learning plans and assignments to accommodate online learning, which is not as easy as it seems. Many projects and culminatings were intended to be done in person and are now significantly harder. 

Grade 11 and 12 students are now at a huge disadvantage when it comes to university applications. Students in districts where grades cannot drop will have inflated average while students in the TDSB still have to earn their grades. These are very important years for those applying to university as these grades are the ones they will apply with and universities will use to determine admission. This also results in some some students receiving entrance scholarships easier because they did not have to work to maintain their average, especially with big projects like ISU’s or culminatings that can majorly bring down one’s average. 

With the raging Omicron variant many students and their families are contracting Covid. Students cannot be expected to keep up with work while suffering from Covid, especially those with severe symptoms. We have reached a point in Ontario where it’s not just one student per class, but several students in classes can have it at the same time. For those who have been lucky enough to not catch Covid they may still have family members who have caught it and that can be very distressing for one, especially in cases where their loved ones are in the hospital. With the pace of this semester, a few days taken off to deal with Covid can result in drowning in school work. 

Lastly, students mental health are at a critical point. It’s very clear that almost everyone’s mental health has been affected throughout this pandemic, but students are highly affected. Students have been struggling with their mental health since 2020, and this is only making it worse. Even when we were in-person learning, students were still dealing with their mental health, and going online is making matters much more worse. Students can no longer see friends, they are spending the majority of time locked up at home as Ontario is entering lockdown again and speaking from person experience, getting covid has a massive impact on one’s mental health. In 2019, 1 in 10 Ontario students reported that they seriously considered suicide. After almost 2 years in a pandemic, going in and out of social isolation during their prime teen years, you can imagine that statistic is much higher. Students are struggling and begging for a break. 

Please consider making it so that students marks cannot drop for the rest of the semester.