No More Split of Academic and Applied Math Courses in Ontario Canada
In Ontario of Canada, when students enter high school (Grade 9), they will face the choce of academic or applied courses.
The practice of dividing high school courses into academic and applied courses is also called streaming education. This practice has been criticized and questioned by various quarters for many years. Because the classification of such courses will treat students unfairly in the future. , Moreover, it is also regarded as discrimination against low-income families.
However, this strange education streaming course has been implemented in Ontario of Canada for many years, and it is still the same today.
Some low-income families may allow their children to choose application courses that are easier than academic courses due to life pressures and different parental education levels. The general admission criteria for many universities is to only choose academic course scores , Applied courses can only be accepted by colleges.
In this way, high school students in the same school are "diverted" by different courses during high school, resulting in entering different universities after high school, even if a student has studied well in the last two years of high school, but because of the previous he has chosen applied course and cannot be admitted to the ideal university.
This unfair split course is now finally to be ended. From September 2021, Grade 9 new students in Ontario will have the same mathematics curriculum, and there will no longer be a distinction between academic mathematics and applied mathematics. This is the first time this type of streaming course has been cancelled in Ontario since 2005.
The content of the new mathematics courses arranged by the provincial education department has also changed, The courses will be more close to real-life applications, and will increase financial knowledge and computer coding courses.
The new course currently only start with mathematics, and other parties have called for the early cancellation of all streaming courses.
The new mathmatics courses might have different meanings for different students. Will the course become harder or easier? If it becomes harder, it will be no good for all students. If it becomes easier, it will be good for all, but for those excellent and hard-studying students, it is another kind of unfairness, because they put in more effort but may not get the big difference in marks to have excellent performance.