President's blog: It's time to rethink Year 12 high stakes exams and the ATAR
Here we are with roughly half the country currently in lockdown, many others just out of lockdown and none of us knowing what's going to happen next.
There is no doubt our kids are stressed, especially Year 12 students. There is plenty of research to tell us this but we know parents need look no further than their own home to see the evidence themselves. Two-thirds of parents are concerned that lockdowns are affecting the mental health of their children, with half worried about emerging behavioural problems, according to the latest Guardian Essential poll.
Year 12 students across the country have had a very disrupted senior secondary experience. Pushing them to perform to their very best under such conditions and with the preparation they have had is not right. Even students not subjected to the yoyo lockdowns or long periods of remote learning are stressed because we are living through a global pandemic. We are all experiencing a heightened feeling of threat. Teachers teaching are feeling it. Parents caring are feeling it. Kids going to school, or not as the case may be, in every grade level are feeling it. (With the younger ones not understanding it either).
Year 12 students are like elite athletes. If we want them to perform at their optimum we need to have provided the perfect opportunities to prepare, practice and train. 2020-2021 has not been that opportunity, and let's not forget that Year 11 for these students was also massively disrupted. We are not giving every student, every chance to achieve their peak by persisting with high stakes testing right now. Practical exams in creative and performance courses like music, dance and drama, have already been abandoned in NSW, there's been disruption to the VCE GAT assessments in Victoria and the ACT Scaling Test, which is required to get an ATAR for university entry, anyway.
We need to reduce the pressure and find alternative ways to assess and award credentials that reflect students' school performance and aptitude.
Some universities already offer alternatives to ATAR entry. The time is now for Education Ministers and Departments to catch up! Universities and admission bodies across the country need to pivot (there I said it!) now and create these options for students. Scores made on the basis of the culmination of work and assesment done during the year make sense right now. There are lots of suitable ways to select students for university admission other than the ATAR, which is a blunt instrument at the best of times. Things like school recommendation, university entrance interviews, aptitude testing for course suitability, written submissions by students all spring to mind.
The class of 2021 can still go on to university, work, training and whatever else 2022 holds for them if alternative measures are put in place and now is definitely the time to put the wellbeing of students at the forefront. It will likely to be a better investment in the long run.
If your young person is struggling with stress, feeling overwhelmed and you are worried about their mental health, there is professional support available. This is a list of helplines, online forums and mental health services: https://www.beyondblue.org.au/who-does-it-affect/young-people/helpful-contacts-and-websites.