Beginning next fall, students no longer will receive credit for taking the Florida Virtual School driver’s education course during the school day. Students selecting the 10-week course will not receive credit as they would for choosing any other half-credit course lasting 17 weeks.

“I took the class during my ninth-grade year. I finished in a week and learned a few good driving tips,” recent graduate Emily Coard said. “My brother was looking forward to the class since it was so easy.”

The driver’s ed virtual course has been deemed counterproductive, as students are able to finish the class in less than four weeks, leaving them with nothing to work on in the virtual lab for six to eight weeks.

“In the past years, any student that took driver’s ed finished relatively quickly and never had a problem within the class,” lab adviser Cindy Farrington said. “The class helps with insurance and student’s GPA.”

Students are still permitted take this half-credit course, but also must select another course, to take along with driver’s ed.

“I was planning on taking driver’s ed class, but now since there’s no credit for the class, it would be counterproductive to my learning, because I would have to do double work during virtual lab time,” sophomore Shivani Laloo said.