Surging demand puts pressure on high school upgrading programs in Edmonton

When Rowan Young decided to retake some high school courses at Centre High Campus to strengthen her university applications, she heard that she'd need to apply early.

"I was worried that I wasn't going to get into any classes — and I was lucky that I got into two," she said.

Mikail Kayani applied to upgrade online at St. Joseph Catholic High School. He said the process for getting in and when he could start was unclear.

"I had a lot of trouble, honestly, getting into the system," Kayani said. "I was waiting for months. I wanted to start as soon as I graduated. I put in an email. I was calling my counsellors from high school."

Academic upgrading courses are for students who have finished high school but want to upgrade their marks, and for others who didn't finish school but want to get a diploma or certificate. Courses are offered for free for students 19 and younger.

Upgrading programs in Edmonton are seeing a surge in demand, and some are tapped out for space. Population growth is one factor. Another is that more students who were in school during the pandemic are looking for do-overs to get higher marks.

Todd Eistetter, the principal at St. Joseph, said the school is full for both in-person and online upgrading courses.

"We are beyond capacity for the physical numbers within the building," Eistetter said.

"And for our online, we have had to put limits on that as well, because we just have too many applicants and not enough qualified teachers in the system."

Centre High, the Edmonton Public School Board upgrading school for students 17 to 19, is also seeing more demand. 

In a statement to CBC, Edmonton Public Schools said that to address demand, it has set a maximum number of three courses per semester for upgrading students. Renovations have begun, in an effort to add more learning spaces.

Centre High has also hired more staff and created an additional block of classes in students' schedules. All that means there's no longer a waitlist to get in.

But Young said as a student, things feel full. She said in her first month, students were told more than two unexcused absences were not allowed.

"Verbally, we were told over and over again ... that if we miss any classes then we'd most likely be kicked out, just because there's such a long waiting list," she said.

A spokesperson for Edmonton Public Schools said this absence policy does not exist, but that Centre High does track attendance to accommodate as many students as possible.

Students who aren't able to secure a spot in the public or Catholic programs can pay to upgrade at some post-secondaries.

At NAIT, NorQuest College and MacEwan University, students pay about $600 per course, plus fees. 

Demand at MacEwan has increased by 10 per cent this year and additional sections in area of high demand are being offered, a spokesperson said in an email.

At NorQuest, a similar increase was recorded, with 12 per cent more applications between 2023 and 2024. NorQuest said demand is up notably since the pandemic — there has been a 73 per cent increase in applications since 2021

Population growth

Surging population growth is creating pressure at schools across the province. And that squeeze in regular schools can mean less capacity for upgrading programs.

For example, Edmonton Catholic Schools once had plans for an upgrading centre in the Lewis Farms Recreation Centre that's scheduled to open 2028. 

But in a statement, the school board said plans have changed because all but one of its high schools is over capacity. As a result, it's now prioritizing the construction of a new high school in the area instead.

Right now, students in their fourth year of school are funded by the province at 50 per cent of the high school base rate. Fifth-year students are funded at 25 per cent. That's something Edmonton Catholic would like to see changed. 

"We would like to see our fourth- and fifth-year students fully funded, understanding that some need that extra time to finish their studies before transitioning to post-secondary or the workforce," spokesperson Christine Meadows said in an email.

In an emailed statement, Education Minister Demetrios Nicolaides said that's because they often take fewer courses than regular high school students — and that it's up to school authorities to cope with demand.

"The respective school authority has the autonomy and accountability to manage their budgets to reflect the needs of the students and communities they serve."

Pandemic hangover

Young and Kayani think the pandemic affected their high school experience — and that could be why more students are looking to upgrade.

"I feel like it definitely affected my grades, personally. I felt like I lost a lot of work ethic and doing it online was a lot harder to stay motivated," Kayani said.

"I didn't learn anything between Grade 8 to 10," Young said. "I just don't remember anything from then because the teachers were all struggling and the tests were super hard."

Kelly Gallagher-Mackay, an expert on education and inequality at Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, Ont., said there's limited data on post-COVID school outcomes.

But in the places research was done, it's clear that students fell behind in ways that aren't always reflected in grades and could be long-lasting.

"A significant number of them are struggling to feel fully prepared for the next steps of life. And we want to know that they are prepared. Nobody wants to go through life feeling like they faked their way through the learning they needed to do," Gallagher-Mackay said.

"It makes sense that students are working to either rebuild their confidence or build up certain skills — or make up for some lost time."