Ontario Minister of Education Paul Calandra, left, visits students in the classroom at École Catholique Pape-François school in Stouffville, Ont., in May.Nathan Denette/The Canadian Press
The Toronto District School Board is ending the lottery system for specialized programs and returning to merit-based admissions for the coming school year.
The board made the announcement on its website on Tuesday.
The decision was made by the supervisor appointed by the Minister of Education in June to oversee the board, according to a letter sent to parents.
Supervisor Rohit Gupta was brought in after a report found the board had failed to properly manage its finances. Since Mr. Gupta’s posting, trustees have been relieved of their duties.
Specialized programs focus on math, the arts, science and technology, leadership and other subject areas.
Returning to a system of merit-based admissions will help students reach their full potential, Ontario Education Minister Paul Calandra said in a statement.
“The previous lottery system failed students who worked hard to earn their place. Restoring a fair admissions process based on merit is about ensuring students’ achievements are recognized,” he said. “These changes will help ensure every student can reach their full potential and that excellence remains at the centre of Ontario’s education system.”
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The lottery system has been controversial since it was adopted in 2022.
Critics said it was unfair to students who often had dedicated years of work in their area of interest, while proponents said it was an equitable system for underrepresented students.
Under the lottery system, priority went first to Indigenous students, while 20 per cent of spaces were reserved for Black, Latin and Middle Eastern students. Half the spots in math, science and technology programs were reserved for girls.
In the new system, no groups are to receive priority.
At the elementary level, applicants will be admitted based on an evaluated portfolio or audition video submitted with their application, according to the letter the school board sent to parents.
Students applying to specialized programs at secondary schools will have to meet a report card benchmark and “an evaluated demonstration of knowledge and skills.”
Applications to specialized programs for 2026 will be open during the week of Nov. 10 and will remain open for three weeks, the letter said.
Ahnaaf Hassan, a school board student trustee, said many students in specialized programs are celebrating the decision.
“Students were so extremely happy when the news came out yesterday,” he said. “Students were very upset at the fact that their hard work and all the hard work they put in to admissions wasn’t being taken into account any more.”
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Others are disappointed in the decision. Ayan Kailie said the lottery system allowed her daughter, now in Grade 11, to gain entrance to the arts program she had always dreamed of attending.
“I’m someone who couldn’t afford the private art lessons, and couldn’t afford the canvasses, so for a child like mine it was a godsend,” she says. “When I hear the words merit-based, all I hear is a child who has access to tutoring and lessons.”
School board trustee Michelle Aarts said the decision is an attack on policies designed to promote equity.
“It’s entirely partisan politics,” she said.
The lottery system is the best way to meet student needs, she said.
“This is the best way to go forward with inclusion,” Ms. Aarts said. “For the first time, these programs were demonstrating that they could meet the legal duties of the board to accommodate all students, and regardless of what some parents say, it is a legal duty of a public education system to provide equal opportunities for all students.”
A 2017 study by the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education found that 67 per cent of students in Toronto’s arts-focused high schools identified as white and were more likely to have a parent with a university education.
Bruce Yu, board chair of Save Our Schools, an advocacy organization that opposed the lottery system, said it was created for ideological reasons.
“We’re excited that hard work finally matters,” he said. “The focus was always on ideology. The focus was on meeting racial and demographic quotas. It wasn’t on actually ensuring that students who deserved to be in programs were in programs, and it wasn’t focused on ensuring that students were able to succeed in those programs.”
Katrina Matheson, whose eldest daughter attends an arts-focused high school, says that although the lottery system was flawed, the new policy lacks the nuance to address the issues the lottery system was intended to help solve.
“I’m not saying we should get rid of standards,” she said. “But with this decision to make the change for this year, I think the timing is reckless for families and I’m just not convinced that it’s going to be implemented with any kind of nuance or any kind of thought in terms of really addressing the systemic issues and the things that kids actually need to overcome significant socioeconomic and discriminatory barriers they might face in their life.”