‘The year 10 purge’: Parents, students say schools the reason for rise in unscored VCE rates

Schools are being blamed for a rise in year 12s opting to study an unscored VCE program amid allegations they’re “managing out” students with low grades to protect their VCE performance scores.

Parents and students say schools are forcing struggling students to do unscored VCE, switch schools or swap to VET pathways to protect their VCE rankings.

Public and private schools are “managing out” students with low grades to protect their VCE performance scores, parents and former students say.

They claim schools are forcing them to do unscored VCE, switch schools or swap to VET pathways in a bid to protect their VCE rankings in what’s being dubbed the “year 10 purge”.

An unscored VCE involves students completing year 12 VCE subjects without being assessed in some or all school-based and external assessments.

They complete year 12 but do not get an ATAR.

The revelations come as the percentage of students who do unscored VCE has more than tripled in the past decade.

Both academically competitive state schools and high fee private schools extensively promote their median VCE scores and state rankings in their marketing to attract students.

The revelations come as the percentage of students who do unscored VCE has more than tripled in the past decade, jumping from three per cent in 2015 to eight per cent in 2020 to 11.7 per cent in 2024.

The Victorian retention rate from year 10 to year 12 is also at a ten-year low, with now only 81 per cent completing year 12, down from 85 in 2015.

The state school retention rate is 75 per cent, down from 81 per cent in 2015.

One parent whose child recently left Cheltenham Secondary College alleged his son “had at least three friends managed out of school due to low grades.”

“The schools are only interested in one thing and that’s their national score rankings,” he said.

“They strongly suggested that (my son) would be better off doing an apprenticeship and he should actively look for one. He was escorted to the front gate by the principal and wished the best of luck.”

“He was only 15 at the time.”

Box Hill High, Koonung Secondary College and Northcote High were among the other state schools where students alleged they were prompted to do unscored VCE.

A Department of Education spokeswoman said: “Last year, the VCAA reminded school principals that students should only undertake an unscored option in response to their individual needs based on their circumstances, and provided schoolswith a suite of resources to ensure students provide informed consent”.

Private school parents and former students allege schools such as Ballarat Clarendon Grammar, Presbyterian Ladies’ College and Melbourne Girls’ Grammar have also encouraged lower-performing students away from doing scored VCE.

One student described it as “the year 10 purge”.

Students reported they were told they would “struggle to pass VCE” and “it’s not the best option for you”.

“It’s the year 10 purge. The VCE common room was a lot less crowded than the year 10 one,” one student said.

A spokeswoman from Melbourne Girls’ Grammar denied this was the school’s policy and said it did not reflect its philosophy.

Presbyterian Ladies’ College said it had no knowledge of such claims.

Greg Ashman, deputy principal of Ballarat Clarendon College, said the claim made against Clarendon was “false, misleading, and potentially actionable”. The school has very low numbers of unscored students and no students who leave between year 11 and 12, he said.

Not all students do unscored VCE as a result of school pressure, with some opting to take a less stressful choice.

High school graduate Lukas chose to study unscored VCE last year as he didn’t require an ATAR for his chosen pathway.

“Instead I just needed the year 12 certificate,” he said.

“The benefits to this included a smaller workload which reduced my stress, gave me time to work and allowed me to start my pathway earlier since there were no exams to do.”

A VCAA spokesman said “the proportion of students completing ‘unscored’ VCE has increased by less than one per cent over the past three years”.

Not all students do unscored VCE as a result of school pressure.

Originally published as ‘The year 10 purge’: Parents, students say schools the reason for rise in unscored VCE rates