Certificate of Graduation - 2018 Graduation Program Requirements

The B.C. Certificate of Graduation or "Dogwood Diploma" is awarded to students who successfully complete the provincial graduation requirements.

If you are entering Grade 10 or 11 in 2017/18 or later you are on the 2018 Graduation Program. To graduate, you will require 80 credits total – with a minimum of 16 at the Grade 12 level, and 28 elective course credits. 52 credits are required from the following:

• Two Career Education courses (8 credits total)

• Physical and Health Education 10 (4 credits)

• Science 10 (4 credits), and a Science 11 or 12 (4 credits)

• Social Studies 10 (4 credits), and a Social Studies 11 or 12 (4 credits)

• A Math 10 (4 credits), and a Math 11 or 12 (4 credits)

• A Language Arts 10, 11 & 12 (12 credits)

• An Arts Education 10, 11, or 12 and/or an Applied Design, Skills, and Technologies 10, 11, or 12 (4 credits)

In addition, students on the 2018 Graduation Program must also complete the two new Graduation Assessments: 

• Numeracy Assessment

  • The Numeracy Assessment will be introduced in 2018

    • January 2018 - managed implementation with small subset of students

    • June and August 2018 - full provincial implementation

• Literacy Assessment 

  • The Literacy Assessment will be introduced in January 2020 (students graduating in the 2018/19 school year will take a Language Arts 12 course and associated provincial exam to satisfy this graduation requirement for the 2018 Graduation Program).

NOTE: Students on the 2018 Graduation Program will be able to meet the career education graduation requirement with any of the following combinations: 

• Planning 10/Grad Transitions

• Planning 10/Career Life Connections + Capstone

• Career Life Education/Grad Transitions

• Career Life Education/Career Life Connections + Capstone

For 2018/19, the following career education courses will be used in all BC schools:

• Career Life Education 

• Graduation Transitions

For 2019/20 and beyond, the following career education courses will be used in all BC schools:

• Career Life Education

• Career Life Connections + Capstone 

NOTE: The Social Studies 11/12 graduation requirement for students on the 2018 Graduation Program is flexible; any of the current Ministry Social Studies 11 or 12 courses will meet the requirement. 

• Social Studies 11

• Civic Studies 11

• BC First Nations Studies 12

• Comparative Civilizations 12

• Geography 12

• History 12

• Law 12

• Social Justice 12

And any of the new Ministry Social Studies 11 or 12 courses (i.e., those that will be used in all BC schools in 2019/20) will also meet the requirement: 

• Explorations in Social Studies 11

• Francophone History 11    

• 20th Century World History 12

• Asian Studies 12

• B.C. First Peoples 12

• Comparative Cultures 12

• Comparative World Religions 12

• Contemporary Indigenous Studies 12

• Economics 12

• Genocide Studies 12

• Human Geography 12

• Law Studies 12

• Philosophy 12

• Political Studies 12

• Physical Geography 12

• Social Justice 12

• Urban Studies 12