Push for 11 year olds to take exams in Victorian schools
EXAMS should be introduced in primary school and schools should move away from thinking that all students can be winners, an education expert says.
VIC News
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VICTORIAN schools are facing a push to introduce exams for students as young as 11 in a tough-love bid to improve lagging results.
Education experts have also claimed schools must be unafraid to fail students and ditch the idea that “all can be winners”.
Dr Kevin Donnelly, from the Australian Catholic University, said students in grade 6 and years 7- 9 needed to face high-pressure exams before VCE.
He said exams were the best way to prevent underperforming students “floating through”.
“We need to set high expectations and high standards,” Dr Donnelly said.
“The danger is, in a lot of schools, that kids float through from year to year without a competitive, high-risk test where they pass or fail.
“It’s important to know whether they have the foundation, understanding and skills that’s essential for the subjects they’ll do in Year 12, at university or in an apprenticeship.”
Australia’s maths and science scores continue to slide on the globe stage and last year the nation’s year 4 and 8 results ranked below Kazakhstan and Slovenia.
Dr Donnelly said schools must stamp out the thinking that “near enough is good enough”.
“Sometimes we seem to be afraid of hurting their self-esteem or hurting their feelings,” he said.
“We need to move away from thinking that all can be winners.”
Tintern Grammar runs formal assessments in years 7-9, as well as grades 5 and 6, that are “for all intents and purposes long tests or short exams”.
Principal Bradley Fry said exams built resilience and prepared students for later years.
“That preparation is really important because by the time you get to VCE and sit those exams it is not an unknown event,” he said.
“It needs to be age and stage appropriate. But there is no doubt that challenge builds resilience and examinations are an example of that.”
Educational psychology lecturer Dr Penny Van Bergen, from Macquarie University, said exams enhanced learning by forcing students to study and improve memory pathways.
“As we study for an exam and practice what we’ve learnt our memory pathways become stronger,” she said.
The Education Department said there was “no current proposal” to introduce new exams in Victorian schools.