By Noel Towell
The number of VCE students getting special assistance with their exams has surged, with most of those getting help coming from private and Catholic schools, despite comprising a minority of those taking the tests.
More than 10,000 so-called special examination arrangements (SEAs) were granted across Victoria last year, ballooning from just under 3600 in 2014, state education department data shows.
Nearly 60 per cent of the SEAs went to students at independent or Catholic schools – despite them making up just 37 per cent of the cohort.
Special arrangements can include rest breaks during exams, extra time to complete the paper, electronic or human assistance to understand questions or complete answers, Auslan interpreters or exam papers in enlarged print, electronic text or braille.
Students facing serious physical or psychological barriers to sitting their exams can, in exceptional circumstances, be allowed to take their VCE at home or in hospital.
Almost all applications – 99.2 per cent – were approved by Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority (VCAA).
Schooling consultant Paul O’Shannassy said despite the numbers being weighted towards private school kids there was no evidence of any abuse or gaming of the system.
Rather, he said independent school teachers – under pressure to improve their institution’s Australian Tertiary Admission Rank profile – could be more likely to encourage students to seek extra help.
A prominent public school teacher says the surge in applications is not evidence of a “private school rort”, but of the lingering effects of pandemic disruptions on teens across the education system.
More than half of the applications– 5603 – cited mental health impairments, more than two-and-a-half times higher than pre-COVID-19 applications.
“All these current Year-12s were in lower secondary school during the lockdowns and we’re still seeing the detrimental effect,” maths teacher John Kermond told The Age.
The VCAA – which has “streamlined” the evidence requirements for applications – says the soaring numbers are being driven by greater awareness among parents, teachers and students that help was available at exam time.
The authority said improved understanding of mental health and other medical problems was also resulting in more students applying for exemptions.
“This may be due to there being less stigma associated with students making their school, and potentially peers, aware of their specific health issues and or personal circumstances,” it wrote in its report on last year’s special arrangements figures.
Kermond – an outspoken critic of aspects of VCE delivery – said SEAs had also surged in the public education sector, which was evidence that it was no “private school rort”.
The John Monash Science School Educator pointed to the ongoing effects of schools closures and pandemic lockdowns.
“In my opinion the lockdowns created a generational problem that will continue for a few more years,” Kermond said.
“The danger is that the lack of resilience and social skills exhibited by many students as a result of the lockdowns becomes the new norm that is catered to.”
O’Shannassy, too, cited greater awareness of mental health problems among schools, teachers and parents as a potential driving force behind the increase in SEAs.
But a desire to maximise student performance and the school’s ATAR profile might be incentivising teachers in the independent sector to pursue special examinations arrangements for students who needed extra help, he said.
“Some of the private schools are more likely to be ATAR-driven than government schools particularly in those lower-socio economic areas, where awareness of the availability of special exam provisions may not be high,” O’Shannassy said.
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