The Yukon Excellence Award program is being changed to broaden the variety of courses in which students are eligible for awards and to focus on final grades rather than final exams.

Previously, the Yukon Excellence Awards focused on exam performance in traditional areas for language arts, mathematics, social studies and science.

The new criteria focus on performance throughout a course and provide opportunities to earn awards in the areas of art, music, shop, home economics, outdoor education and others.

Awards of $300 for each subject can be earned by students in Grades 10 to 12 who achieve a final overall mark of 80 per cent or higher in up to five mandatory courses and five elective courses.

This applies to a maximum of four Grade 10 courses, three Grade 11 courses and three Grade 12 courses, for a maximum total amount of $3,000.

Changes to the award criteria have no impact on the Yukon Excellence Awards of students who have already graduated.

Historically, students received awards when they achieved 80 per cent or higher during year-end Yukon Achievement Tests and B.C. Provincial Exams, regardless of their final mark.

The next two years will be an overlap period for students who wrote Yukon Achievement Tests in Grade 9.

The final year that Grade 9 students wrote Yukon Achievement Tests was 2012, as a result of changes to the B.C. curriculum, which Yukon follows.

These students will be assessed under both the old and the new award criteria and will receive whichever award sum is higher, to the maximum of $3,000.

“Yukon students will benefit from changes to qualifications for Yukon Excellence Awards, that encompass more subject areas,” Education Minister Elaine Taylor said last Friday.