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Before pupils enter Grade 9. extensive inâ€" formation will be provided for them through careful counselling. The Department is pre- paring a brochure to explain the Programme to parents, educational officials, teachers and counsellors. The Guidance Departments of our schools will move into a much closer relaâ€" tionship with pupils and parents than in the past. It is our hope and intention that the advice given will help the pupil and parent to make the best possible selection of any one Branch or available Programme. Pupils regularly promoted from Grade 8 of the elementary schools will thus be assisted in choosing the Branch of the secondary school in which they will enrol, as they do at present in schools which offer courses alternative to the General Course. Those who elect the Engineering, Technology and Trades Branch will devote 20% of their time to shopwork in Grade 9; those choosing Business and Commerce will spend 20% of the time in practical subjects pertaining to that field; those choosing the Arts and Science Branch will use 20% of the time for options which may be exploratory in nature. Those in any Branch who expect to continue in the Five-Year Programme and to proceed to high- er education will choose as an option in Grade 9 one language in addition to English. The core of compulsory subjects will be similar in content in all three Branches of that grade. At the end of Grade 9 successful pupils will choose to enter the second year of either the Five-Year Programme or the Four-Year Programme on the basis of their proficiency, ‘aptitude, and future plans. A successful pupil will be free to transfer from one Branch to another at the end of Grade 9. Transfers may be possible also, with certain limitations, from Branch to Branch or Programme to Pro- gramme after the beginning of Grade 10. After Grade 9, the courses in all three Branches of the Five-Year Programme will be similar in content and difficulty except that, as in Grade 9, 20% of the time on shop work and 20% of the time on commercial subjects will have their counterpart in the Arts and Science Branch as additional languages or other cultural options. In the Four-Year Pro- gramme in all three Branches, however, the courses commencing in Grade 10 will diverge according to the vocational needs of the pupils, their aptitudes and interests. The new plan is optional and by resolution of a board will be introduced in its schools gradually over a period of five years, comâ€" mencing with Grade 9 in September 1952 and affecting one additional higher grade in each succeeding year. The courses for Grade 9 in the school year 1961-62 will remain un- changed. Committees of teachers of the various subâ€" WINTER 1961 The Hon. John P. Roborls, Premier at Ontario and Minister of Education. jects will be convened by the Curriculum Branch early in September, I961, to prepare initial draft outlines which the secondary school subject inspectors will discuss with groups of teachers across the Province. These committees and conferences will provide for wide repre- sentation and will tap the great wealth of ex- perience available throughout the Province. In their discussion groups they will include also university authorities, educational officials. trustees and parents, and representatives of business, industryY and labour. The revised out- lines will then he submitted again to the [each- er committees for consideration and final prepâ€" aration. It is planned that mimeographed sug- gestions of course t0pics for the new Pro- grammes will be issued to the schools in Jan- uary 1962. After an adequate period of trial and revision the courses of study will he printâ€" ed in the usual manner. Additional facilities required to house the new secondary school system are being de- veloped throughout Ontario under a Federal- Provincial agreement announced jointly in May by Mr. Robarts and Hon. Michael Starr, Federal Minister of Labour. This agreement provides for payment of 75 per cent of con- struction costs by the Federal Government and the remainder by the Province These facilities will thus be provided free of capital cost to the municipalities and the school boards. It is a condition of the agreement that to qualify for these grants, the construction must be com- pleted by March 31, 1963. As of August 21, 1961, boards have received approval to build 126 schools or additions to schools either ex- clusively vocational or including vocational t9