Year 12 school students have been guaranteed the COVID-19 disruption will not delay entry to university
South Australia’s year 12 students will not have to repeat next year in order to enter tertiary study.
Education
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South Australia’s Year 12 students have been assured they will be given an ATAR ranking so they can graduate to tertiary study in 2021.
COVID-19 disruption to school-based learning is expected to continue as not all students will return to school this week.
Education authorities are battling to devise a plan to make sure no Year 12 student will be disadvantaged.
SATAC’s chief executive Stuart Mossman said the organisation was confident it would have enough Year 12 assessment to rank this year’s students.
“We are working very closely with the SACE Board and we understand there will be sufficient quality assured evidence from Year 12 to support an ATAR calculation in 2020,” he said.
SATAC’s job is to rank students for tertiary entry cut-offs, after being given their assessment from SACE, an essential part of entry to further study for school leavers.
Education Department executive director of schools and preschools Anne Millard said experts were also working out how students would not be disadvantaged by disruption caused by COVID-19.
In the case of Unley High School students, this included the closing of the campus after an outbreak in late March.
Ms Millard said in the case of Year 12, while final assessments get a large profile, there were many formative assessments along the way.
UniSA chief academic officer, Professor Allan Evans, said university entry for 2021 was expected to run as normal.
“At this stage it is assumed that Year 12 students will complete their studies and receive grades and ATARs, with any necessary adjustments made by the secondary system,’’ he said.
Streamline plan for Year 12 subjects
Students will need to submit fewer assignments and shorter projects for many subjects to qualify for their South Australian Certificate of Education this year.
The move yesterday by the SACE Board came as the organisation controlling university entry set August as the deadline for any changes to its rankings.
SACE Board chief executive Martin Westwell said 37 subjects would now have modified outl ines or minimum requirements for school-based assessments because of COVID-19 disruption.
“We are still assessing the students’ full range of knowledge and skills, but trusting teachers’ professional judgment and providing them with the flexibility to reduce an assessment task should they need to,” Mr Westwell, pictured, said. “Students want to know it will be fair and that their SACE this year will be as valued as anyone else’s SACE.”
Modifications vary from subject to subject.
In English, students will be able to critique a short story rather than a novel or analyse in detail 10 minutes of a film rather than the whole feature.
Time requirements for practical elements have been reduced for subjects such as music and workplace practice.
Meanwhile, the SA Tertiary Admissions Centre said it would decide by August whether other criteria would be needed such as interviews, portfolios or special tests in addition to a tertiary ranking linked to the SACE result.