Susie O’Brien: Action needed now to end school uncertainty
Taking this year’s VCE into next year and forcing students to be studying through summer is the last thing they need. Education ministers desperately need to rethink their approach and make sure no child gets left behind amid this crisis, writes Susie O’Brien.
Susie O'Brien
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Education Minister James Merlino must act swiftly to make this terrible, horrible, no good, very bad school year better for everyone. He and his interstate counterparts must end the uncertainty for Year 12 students in particular.
As a first step, Merlino should move VCE exams from early November to the end of December.
In recent days, he has flagged moving exams into February 2021, but this must not happen. The last thing Year 12 students need is to be working through summer. After a year like this, they do not deserve to be doing exams next February.
Taking this year’s VCE into next year would also complicate university admissions. Financially struggling universities couldn’t afford not to have a 2021 intake, and they would buckle under the pressure of a double intake in 2022.
Exams — which only make up 30 per cent of the final score anyway — must also be modified to take the pressure off students. Exams are increasingly seen as an outdated measure of assessment, and 15,000 people so far have signed an online petition for Year 11 and 12 exams to be scrapped altogether.
Marks from teachers should be given more prominence and could be supplemented by General Achievement Tests which should be held at the end of the year rather than mid-year.
Exams should be made shorter – perhaps cut from three hours to two – so they are much less of a drain on students. Similarly, school-assessed coursework tasks could also be cut in number and simplified.
Educational insiders say students — particularly those working at home — need the challenge of exams to motivate them.
But we must ensure they’re not overburdened. At the best of times, VCE students are stressed and upset. Adding a global pandemic which has shut down their schools and ended their social interaction has the anxiety levels of many sky-high.
Schools also need to give more thought to special consideration arrangements. In such cases, teachers can give indicative scores of students’ abilities rather than achievement.
There is also a push to remove ATAR scores, but students deserve to have an adjusted score so they can apply for university entry here and elsewhere. Removing the ATAR altogether would disadvantage high-achieving students.
VCAL students face their own challenges, with many locked out of practical experience and work placements due to the virus. Flexibility will be key.
As term two rolls around next week, Merlino needs to ensure vulnerable high school students who can’t learn at home can go back to school. The last thing kids from unstable homes need is to be further disadvantaged by the virus outbreak.
We know thousands of kids in this state are living in dysfunctional homes affected by family violence, a lack of food and insecure housing. For many of these children, school is a sanctuary where they are not only educated but fed and cared for.
Let’s not forget Victoria has one of the biggest rich-poor divides among schools in the nation. Recent data shows the richest 1 per cent of schools spent $3 billion on capital works while the poorest 50 per cent spent a combined $2.6 billion in recent years.
It may be hard for some inner-metro Millennials to understand, but not all kids have access to a laptop, reliable internet and an appropriate place to study at home.
In some regional schools, up to a quarter of students don’t have the internet at home. Some can’t afford it and others live in areas where there isn’t access. Kids shouldn’t have to drive two hours to their local regional centre to sit in a Maccas carpark just so they can study.
Merlino and federal education minister Dan Tehan must work closer with telco companies and the NBN to prioritise connecting remote homes or giving Year 12s access to free 4G mobile data.
In the meantime, kids with internet connection issues must be kept in contact with friends, counsellors and welfare officers, given extra time to complete work and given hard copies of materials.
Regardless of geography, background or family situation, all students must be supported and protected by schools and teachers.
Schools are already gearing up for an explosion in stress-related issues among students. The longer the education boffins argue, the harder it’s getting.
As one teacher told me: “We don’t know we’re supposed to be preparing let alone what we are now supposed to be preparing them for”.
Parents must do what they can to support schools and teachers who are working hard to put the right systems in place. The government must play its role and make its intentions clear as soon as possible.
This year will be challenging for everyone, but they shouldn’t make it harder than it needs to be.
Susie O’Brien is a Herald Sun columnist