What are the OSSD Requirements?

Gone are the days when students had only the option to join public schools within their geographical areas to get their diplomas. However, today, students can attend an Ontario online high school. Thanks to the increasing number of online private high schools in Ontario, students now can have better resources and more flexibility to choose from a larger selection of courses than public schools within their area.

If you are looking forward to opting for an online course at the Ontario high school, you need to have an OSSD certificate. A student can obtain an OSSD when they complete their graduation from high school in Ontario. Students have to score the credits decided by the ministry of education to obtain their OSSD courses. Once the students obtain their OSSD, they can apply for admission to the top universities and colleges in America, Canada or Europe.

However, if you want to obtain your OSSD from a private school in Ontario, you have to meet certain OSSD requirements, including:

• Students have to take 12 optional and 18 compulsory courses. 
• Students have to qualify the OSSLT (Ontario Secondary School Literacy Test)
• Complete 40 hours of community service per year.

So, what is included in compulsory credits?

According to the Ontario Ministry of Education, students must obtain 18 compulsory credits in their Ontario high school courses. It includes:

Number of Credit	Subjects
4	English (1 credit per grade)
3	Group 1, 2, and 3 (1 credit in each group)
3	Mathematics (at least 1 credit in Grade 11 or 12)
2	Science
1	Canadian geography (Grade 9)
1	Canadian History (Grade 10)
1	Health and Physical Education
1	Arts
1	French (secondary language)
0.5	Civics and citizenship
0.5	Career Studies

What is included in elective credits?

According to the Ministry of Education, students must choose 12 elective credits. Students can choose more elective courses in grade 11 and 12 than the grade 9 and 10. Since different OSSD high schools offer different elective courses, students can choose the topics as per their interests. So, here is the list of elective courses students can choose from:

• Arts
• Science
• Social science
• Mathematics
• English
• Modern languages
• Tech, business, and computer science
• Physical education

What is OSSLT?

The OSSLT determines whether a student meets the minimum literacy standards across all the subjects until the end of grade 9. Grade 10 students can take the OSSLT. It is basically a computer-based assessment done in real time. It comprises sessions A and B. Both the sections have 33 questions in total – 31 MCQs and 2 CRQs. 

The OSSLT uses a testlet-based linear on-the-fly (tLOFT) design to generate the tests in real-time via the selection of pre-equated and pre-constructed groups of questions. There are some criteria for the selection of questions for each group. 

The Bottom Line

Now that you know the requirements for OSSD, what are you waiting for? Find a reliable high school in Ontario that can help you obtain OSSD. Depending on your interest, you can choose your course from a broad selection of compulsory and elective courses.