[1] The threat to the fifth year of secondary school education in Ontario grew significantly during the 1960s, with growing opposition to the grade 13 departmental examinations from parents.
[1] Significant opposition from parents, businesses, and universities regarding the education reforms had surfaced by the 1970s, and they believed there was a decline in academic standards, a lack of focus in the curriculum, and lax discipline in schools.
Combined with financially-pressured school boards beginning to call for the abolition of grade 13 as a means of financial restraint, that resulted in the government reevaluating its secondary education system.
Another Royal Commission on Learning, set up in 1995 by the 35th Legislative Assembly of Ontario provincial government, had recommended the elimination of OAC.
[2] The motivation for phasing out OAC was largely thought of as a cost-saving measure by the Progressive Conservatives that would bring Ontario into line with the rest of the provinces.
[4][5][6] The reforms led to a new, standardized curriculum documented in Ontario Secondary Schools, Grades 9 to 12: Program and Diploma Requirements (OSS).
[11] With the increase in students entering post-secondary education, the provincial government set aside additional funding for colleges and universities to build more infrastructure such as residences and classrooms.
[5] They also had to provide more resources such as upgrading libraries, adding more study areas, creating new programs, and hiring additional professors and teaching assistants.
A higher-than-typical number of withdrawals from group education fund investments to pay for post-secondary expenses resulted in lower payout per individual in the double cohort year.
[4] The elimination of OAC resulted in the majority of incoming first-year students in Ontario universities to drop from 19 to 18 years of age.
The Board wonders if there is merit to making the evening hours busier to avoid allowing time to "pre-drink" before events.
[15] Patrick Brady and Philip Allingham of Lakehead University have argued that the provincial government's attempt to bring Ontario in line with the rest of the continent's 12 grades system has only been partially successful.
While they found it was not a universal phenomenon, they noted a number of students who returned for a fifth year primarily to continue their participation in the school's non-academic programming.