After Five Years Of The Semester System, Teachers And Students Weigh In

Photo Credit: via Infotrack

Since the COVID-19 pandemic, secondary schools across the Vancouver School Board have adopted the semester system, where students attend the same four classes every day for half the year and another four for the second half of the year. This opposes the linear system, where students attend four classes one day and their other four the next day and then alternate throughout the week. 

The semester system was initially implemented temporarily in 2021, then permanently instated in 2023 following a student vote, with 71 per cent of students voting in favour of the system. With 2026 being the fifth anniversary of the initial switch, much time has been given for both staff and student opinions to form, with mixed views from both students and educators. The Nest spoke with three teachers and two students, who all agreed to be interviewed under the condition of anonymity. 

With the semester system, many teachers felt the benefits were few and far between.  These benefits included getting to know students better and a more manageable report card season. Although one Social Studies teacher was not able to name a single perceived benefit from teaching in the semester system.

A side effect of the semester system is the removal of a prep block for teachers, which is a block where teachers do all the preparation they need for their classes. Teachers rely on their prep blocks to teach at their best. However, when teachers are to teach the expected seven blocks a year, the semester system forces them to go without a prep block for half the year.  

One Social Studies teacher commented that during their semester without a prep block, they often feel very stressed and overwhelmed. “A lot of people don’t realize [...] this job, it really drains you because of the energy of the students and things like that. And you’re really trying to be enthusiastic in front of the students to make them want to learn and be curious and all that kind of stuff, and if you are drained, it’s really difficult to do,” they shared. “So I feel like two people now, the person that I am without a prep and the person that I am with a prep.”  

According to one language teacher, finding balance during the semesters without a prep block is particularly difficult. “There’s a lot of prep that happens before or after school or maybe during lunch,” they shared. “It’s definitely more stress on work-life balance, [and it’s] harder to manage.”

Another downside of the semester system is the lack of time for students to absorb information from their classes. Some teachers felt that the semester system gave less time for students to learn. 

“Technically, people think that you have the same number of hours, just squished into one semester […] but you technically don’t because you have to slow down a bit,” an English teacher shared. “If you tell them I need you to read something or do something, now it’s for the next day, linear it’s for two days to actually do it.” 

The Social Studies teacher shared that during the semester system, “I feel like I’m rushing things. With the linear system, I felt like you can give them information, you have flexibility too.” They explained how constraints that the system places on them sometimes cut conversations with their students short. “In the semester system, I have to cut it off and go, okay, we've got to move onto the next thing because I feel like it’s a rush,” they shared. “And I’ve taken out things that I normally would have done.”

Semesters can also make it harder for students to catch up on their work if they miss class. “[For good students] it probably doesn’t affect [them] too much because [they] can keep up and it’s almost like a university right […] but for a weaker student it’s really difficult,” the socials teacher shared. “You miss a week, if you’re sick, it’s really difficult.” 

They also mentioned that the semester system particularly affects academically weaker students. “If you’re falling behind right from the start, and you’re weaker, [it’s] really difficult,” he shared. “What ends up happening is they compensate by not coming to class or trying to make excuses, being sick, whatever the case may be.” 

The difference in benefit between academically strong and weak students can be seen in the retention of course material between years. “Having a student for the whole entire year, you again develop that and you develop the skills a lot better than rushing them through in five months,” the socials teacher shared. “Physical Education, for example, you want them to be active throughout the whole year. Now you only get them for five months, and then what are they gonna do for the other semester?” 

Despite the drawbacks from the condensed timeframe, the semester system does allow students to expedite their learning. “The benefit for really good students is, hey, I can finish Socials 10 in the first semester and take another social studies [course] in the second semester and be organized to finish early,” the socials teacher said. “That is a possibility, right, for good students.”

For some students, semesters complement their personal learning style, while for others, it hinders their retention of important topics. “As long as you get a good teacher [the semester system works], because you get four solid months of learning and that’s a quarter of your whole school day just going to [participate] in that subject,” a grade 10 student shared. “It doesn’t matter if you did math in semester one and then now you’re doing math next year in semester two. I think the semester system works, especially for retaining information.”

The grade 10 student also shared that while they haven’t tried the linear system, “[they] can’t imagine doing more than four classes every [day],” and prefer the flexibility of semesters. 

However, another student in grade 11 shared that learning within the semester system makes retaining information challenging. “I forgot almost all the knowledge I learned in Math 8 going into Math 9.”  Despite never experiencing the system, the student is “interested in learning in the linear system just because I’d be able to retain more knowledge over the semester system.”