Canada's GED high school equivalency test ends after March, leaving adult students in limbo

For weeks, Gail Feliciant has been trying to book a General Educational Development (GED) test but hasn't heard back from schedulers.

The 62-year-old from Burlington, Ont., said she's seeking the GED to get the certificate — an equivalent to a high school diploma — to gain more opportunity to work before retirement age. 

She said she registered before the Jan. 31 deadline and still has hope she'll be able to schedule it before March 31, the deadline set by province, but there isn't much time left. 

Pearson Vue GED Testing Service, the company behind the test, is ending service in Canada after this month. 

"It's ludicrous," Feliciant said about the program ending and the tight deadline. 

When the end of the program was announced last year, provinces were left to find their own solutions. 

In the meantime, people who miss the deadline to schedule a test this year won't get another chance — and without any alternative right now in some provinces, such as Ontario, adults wanting to get the equivalent to a high school diploma will face barriers.

"We were completely blindsided by that, as were our students … this is just another roadblock for them," said Steven Lobodici, a professor and assessor at Mohawk College, adding he first learned of the change in August 2023.

The college is one of many learning centres that offers programs to help students prepare for the GED. 

"People have reorganized their entire lives to pursue [a GED] … and then one day in August we let them know, 'You've got four months to get yourselves organized and if you do not write and pass this test by that date, all those efforts have been a waste.' "

Devon Acker, an academic instructor at Ogwehoweh Skills and Trades Training Centre (OSTTC) in Six Nations of the Grand River, said people who don't make it into this cohort will be "in limbo."

"It's almost unbelievable to me they don't have a pathway put in place to service those people."

The GED test is important for all sorts of reasons, Lobodici said.

People may complete it for personal accomplishment, to be a role model for others such as their children, to find work or do apprenticeships, or may need it for certain college programs.