CORONAVIRUS — ATAR AND SENIOR SECONDARY
ASSESSMENTS
278. Hon PETER COLLIER to
the Minister for Education and Training:
My question is asked on behalf of Hon
Donna Faragher, who is on urgent parliamentary business.
I refer to the Education Council's
communique of 27 March 2020 and the current uncertainty regarding Australian tertiary admission rank examinations and senior
secondary assessments for 2020 as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
(1) When in April
is the decision expected to be announced about ATAR examinations and senior
secondary assessments?
(2) Can the
minister provide further details on the options currently being considered?
Hon SUE
ELLERY replied:
I thank the honourable member for
some notice of the question.
(1) The date for
a special Education Council meeting in April has not yet been determined, but
we are anticipating it will be in April.
(2) Options
include changes to the way that the Australian tertiary admission rank may be
calculated and presented and how student
assessments may be undertaken. Adjustments to university admission processes
were also discussed. I just note that I have had discussions with the
vice-chancellors of each university. They will be desperate for students next
year and they will be bending over backwards to accommodate them. Some of the
potential options under consideration include reducing the length of examinations,
changing the date for the administration of the examinations to allow for extra
teaching and learning time, and reducing the amount of syllabus content to be
examined. In addition, work is being undertaken with universities in relation
to their approaches to admissions, given the impact of COVID-19 on senior
secondary students. I continue to work on the premise that no student will be
disadvantaged. Year 12 students are the
group of students for whom we are under the most pressure to provide an immediate
sense of certainty. They will
generally finish school in October and proceed to exams. We have a very short
time to help them get through what
will be an extraordinary year in their lives, never mind an extraordinary year in
their education, and we are doing the very best that we can to ensure that they
will not be disadvantaged.