By Katie Donnelly O’Neill
While the provincial government takes a so-what approach, one Centretown school is helping Grade 12 students complete the 40 hours of community service they require to graduate this June.
The Ontario government has no contingency plans to handle high school students who will be academically eligible to graduate but lack their volunteer hours.
“Have them clean parks,” says Dave Ross, spokesman for the Minister of Education, when asked what students should do if they are having difficulty finding a volunteer placement. Published reports estimate that around 60 per cent of high school students across the province have not completed their volunteer hours.
Lisgar Collegiate is helping its Grade 12 students complete their hours by allowing them to come into the school on weekends to decorate and repair the building. Students will be painting, polishing and hanging plants in an attempt to revamp the school. “We want to restore the school to its fullest glory for the 160th anniversary,” says Lisgar principal Pat Irving.
Irving says a dozen students have already expressed an interest in restoring the school as a way of fulfilling their hours. About 40 per cent of Lisgar’s Grade 12 students have yet to find a volunteer position in the community. Immaculata High School has yet to organize any events to help students complete their hours, says guidance counsellor Darl DiMillo.
The official policy places the onus on students to complete the required hours.
However, Richard Patten, the Liberal MPP for Ottawa Centre, says the schools should be responsible for organizing and running events that would allow graduating students to get their hours.
This year’s Grade 12 class will be the first to graduate under the new curriculum implemented by the provincial government in September 1999.
Students are required to complete 30 credits, pass a Grade 10 literacy test and fulfill 40 volunteer hours to graduate.
Pam Constable, vice-president of the Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation, says the volunteer requirement is part of the government’s “scheme” to make it appear as if it is trying to provide opportunities for students in the community.
The government has put no thought into the implementation of this requirement, Constable says.
“This is going to be an ‘oops’ come graduation time,” she says.
Constable says the Ministry should be responsible for implementing a plan to help the students find volunteer positions since it is their program.
It is not the teachers’ responsibility because they are there to teach, she says.
However, the Ontario Parent Council stands behind the volunteer requirements.
“It allows the students a chance to get known in the community and helps them with their job experience,” says chairperson Trudy Griffiths.
Griffiths says organizations should take as many volunteers as they can handle, as they are investing in their future community.
Although volunteering can be a rich experience for some students, Patten says he doesn’t think the requirement should be tied to graduation.
With a possible provincial election looming this spring, Patten says if the Liberals win, the volunteer requirement may be revisited.
“If something isn’t working, we need to take a look at that and possibly either modify or drop it,” Patten says.