With VCE studies disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic, the Victorian Government announced on Friday each student will be individually assessed.
Any adverse impacts of coronavirus will be reflected in ATAR rankings to ensure fair and accurate results in this unprecedented year of school – taking a huge mental load off students and their families as they head towards exams.
Cobram Anglican Grammar School principal Keith Willett said he had good faith the changes would allow all students equal access to fair and consistent ATAR scores.
“It has been a very challenging year for all schools and also students individually,” he said.
“Many VCE students have found the added challenges of COVID-19 stressful and these announcements by VCAA should relieve some of the anxiety felt by Year 12 students.
“I believe it was going to be difficult to come up with a level and fair playing field for all students so I think these suggestions put up by VCAA are sensible and reasonable.”
The Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority will introduce a wide-ranging “Consideration of Educational Disadvantage” process to calculate VCE scores.
In a normal year, individual students are assessed for special consideration on a case-by-case basis.
This year, schools will provide the VCAA with information on every student.
The VCAA will consider a range of data alongside exam results, including a student’s expected achievement levels before the impact of coronavirus, school assessments completed prior to remote and flexible learning, the General Achievement Test and a range of statistical analyses to calculate final results.
This may include assessing the individual impact of coronavirus on each student, including school closures, direct impacts on the health of a student, students dealing with substantial extra family responsibilities, ongoing issues with remote learning and mental health challenges.
“The bottom line is that every student has been impacted in some way by this pandemic – the challenge is to make sure that it doesn’t decide their future,” Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews said.
“My message to VCE students is clear: you concentrate on doing your best and we’ll take care of everything else.”
This adds to the steps already taken by the VCAA, such as reducing course content for unit four, rescheduling the GAT and extending term four for VCE students with exams to be held later in the year.
More local news
Breakthrough for border residents
Meet Cobram Anglican Grammar’s new principal