Graduation Requirements

80 credits over Grades 10, 11 & 12

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

*Effective for the 2023/24 school year, all students working toward a B.C. Certificate of Graduation (“Dogwood Diploma”), must successfully complete at least 4 credits in Indigenous-focused coursework.

Students require a minimum of 80 credits to graduate.

Of these 80 credits:

At least 16 credits must be at the Grade 12 level, including a required Language Arts 12
At least 28 credits must be elective course credits
These credits can be for:

• Additional Grade 10, 11, or 12 Ministry-Developed courses
• External Credentials
• Board/Authority Authorized courses
• Post-Secondary Credits and/or Independent Directed Studies

52 credits are required from the following: 

Career-Life Education (4 credits)
Career-Life Connections (4 credits)
Physical and Health Education 10 (4 credits)
Science 10 (4 credits)
Science 11 or 12 (4 credits)*
Social Studies 10 (4 credits)
Social Studies 11 or 12 (4 credits)*
A Math 10 (4 credits)
Math 11 or 12 (4 credits)*
A Language Arts 10*, 11* and a required 12* (12 credits total)
An Arts Education 10, 11, or 12 and/or an Applied Design, Skills, and Technologies 10, 11, or 12 (4 credits total)* 
Indigenous-Focused (4 credits)

*one from a number of course options

In addition, students must also complete three new graduation assessments:

Grade 10 Graduation Numeracy Assessment introduced in 2018
Grade 10 Graduation Literacy Assessment introduced in 2019-2020
Grade 12 Graduation Literacy Assessment introduced in 2020-2021


Below is a link to the description of our Literacy & Numeracy Assessment Criteria for Graduation.
Literacy And Numeracy Assessment Information.pdf