Many teens still struggling with condensed school schedules, but relief is coming — for some

Graeme Hopkins had never imagined failing a class, so it came as a shock when it happened last year as he was struggling with his modified high-school schedule.

"I had no idea really how to react or how to process it," said the Grade 12 student at Evan Hardy Collegiate in Saskatoon.   

The 17-year-old's high school was one of many across the country that moved to condensed timetables due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

To keep students in cohorts and minimize contacts, pandemic-altered schedules have them learn fewer subjects at one time, but spend much longer in each class daily. Yet students must also progress quickly through those subjects before moving onto different courses, since they're expected to take the same total number of courses across the school year overall.

While some schools resumed a normal semester system this year, Saskatoon high schools went from a quint system, with five terms per year, into a quarter one. This means students now take three classes a day — two of them 132 minutes long.  The two longer classes change to new ones about every two months, while the third is an hour long and runs the length of a traditional semester. 

These condensed schedules, used in Ontario as well, are taking a toll, say both students and school staff. Though some regions are planning to resume more normal timetables based on local public health advice, others are sticking with the modified ones for the rest of the school year.

Hopkins says he went through burnout, anxiety, and low self-esteem issues last year. He hopes sharing his story can help others going through the same experience.

"There was almost no joy in my life," he said. "What made it even worse was that I thought I was so alone because nobody was talking about it, at least not that I knew of."

Hopkins says math and science courses are impacted most by the compressed schedule.

"You're thrown into tests and quizzes without really being prepared at all just because you haven't had that time to study or to work out any issues you may have with understanding the concepts," he said. 

He plans to take an extra year of high school to accommodate the math and science courses he has left.  

Meanwhile, Ontario high schoolers are currently taking two classes a day, for two-and-a-half hours each. Some schools are on the quadmester system, with subjects changing to a pair of new classes every 10 weeks.

Other schools opted for a "modified semester" system, where students cycle between taking two subjects one week before switching to a pair of different ones the next. The pivoting lasts the length of a traditional semester.

At a press conference this past Thursday, Ontario Minister of Education Stephen Lecce announced that Ontario high schools will "resume a regular timetable model of four courses a day starting in Term 2."