Teacher union calls for urgent VCE review to help stem tide of youth mental illness
Victorian teachers say the stresses of VCE are contributing to the youth mental health epidemic, and are calling on the state government to review the system.
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Victoria’s Year 12 exam and university ranking system is contributing to skyrocketing rates of youth mental illness and urgently needs reviewing, teachers say.
In the lead-up to this year’s VCE exams, president of the Australian Education Union Meredith Peace called on the State Government to fund a major review of the system, which many teachers believed was damaging students.
“We think this seriously needs to be looked at … to see what is it about the VCE that is contributing to that stress and anxiety.
“Is it the workload throughout the year or is it the actual examination system or is it the focus on university and the ATAR at the end?,” she said.
“I think they’re things we can’t necessarily answer at this point, other than knowing they are all contributing in some way and we think a review of that system and looking at it more closely is important if we are actually going to seriously address and prevent some of the mental health concerns that are arising for our students.”
The AEU recommends the VCE and Australian Tertiary Admission Rank (ATAR) system be reviewed in its submission to the Royal Commission into Victoria’s Mental Health System.
The VCE exam period starts for most Year 12 students next week, with the English test to take place on Wednesday, October 30.
“The impact of the Year 12 examination system on student wellbeing and mental health has been an ongoing concern of teachers, parents and mental health professionals for a long time. Psychologists have pointed out the link between the timing of final exams and the age when teenagers are at their most vulnerable and often struggling with their mental health for the first time,” the AEU says in its inquiry submission.
A recent mental health survey by the union reveals nearly 70 per cent of VCE teachers have students with mental health problems in their classes.
In one instance, a teacher had 16 students — in a VCE class of 20 — on recognised mental health plans.
While Victoria’s school exam authority, the Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority (VCAA) last year implemented changes designed to ease exam pressure on students with diagnosed mental health conditions, it had not gone far enough, the AEU said.
“They did not address the fundamental issues and culture created by the very high stakes competitive exam and ATAR systems which circumscribe the nature of Year 12 for the majority of students,” it said.
Psychologist and adolescent and education wellbeing expert Andrew Fuller told the Sunday Herald Sun the VCE and ATAR systems desperately needed overhauling — and potentially scrapping — to take the pressure off teens.
Schools should not be “doing the work of the universities”, by examining students for a tertiary admissions score, Mr Fuller said.
Ms Peace said the VCE was “clearly causing stress” for young people and teachers were seeing students buckle under the pressure in their classrooms.
“Our view is, if we’ve got things which are clearly contributing to the stress and anxiety of our students then the Government and Department (of Education) have an obligation to look at that and review the systems we have in place that are contributing to that problem and in this instance VCE and the ATAR system are clearly things that are causing a lot of stress for our kids.”
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The Department of Education said it had invested $65.5 million in mental health and wellbeing initiatives in public schools to make sure students had support.
One of the best ways for students with mental health conditions to handle the stress of VCE exams was to take regular rest breaks, it said.