By Yen Yen Yip
School is going to mean much more than classroom learning for students who entered Grade 9 this fall.
Starting in September, as part of the province’s secondary school reform, all Grade 9 students across Ontario are facing a new graduation requirement – 40 hours of community service.
“It’s what they used to call ‘noblesse oblige’ … If you’ve been the beneficiary of a positive position in society, you have an obligation to help those that do not,” says Ian McKercher, a curriculum support teacher from the Programs Division at the Ottawa-Carleton district school board.
Intended to promote civic responsibility among students, the 40 hours can be fulfilled in the four years between Grades 9 to 12, and will not affect students currently in Grade 10 and above.
This fall, at least 5,000 Grade 9 students in Ottawa-Carleton are expected to join the voluntary sector — a number that will keep on growing, as more students enter Grade 9 in the coming years. And that has some volunteer agencies worried.
“That’s a lot of kids to be dealing with,” says Mireille Roy, from St. Vincent’s Pavilion, a chronic care facility for seniors. “You can’t expect me to interview 2,000 volunteers and have 40 people every week for orientation. I’d be insane to even think about it.”
Roy says she doesn’t have enough staff to monitor a large group of students.
Many volunteer agencies are assuming the schools will be responsible for their student volunteers.
But the Ministry of Education has assured school boards that the new mandate is not supposed to be a burden to the school system, says McKercher. It’s up to students and parents to find the placements.
Some volunteer agencies worry that the program may make volunteering less appealing for students.
Forcing students to volunteer and not offering them a meaningful experience could turn them off volunteering, says Paula Speevak-Sladowski, of the Volunteer Centre of Ottawa-Carleton.
In order to make the program work, school boards and voluntary agencies have begun working together to set up guidelines for the new mandate. While the ministry has developed a list of activities that won’t be allowed for community service, school boards will need to create a list of approved ones. They will also have to address situations involving liability and insurance, among others.