As Victorian Year 12 students march towards the finish line of their schooling the strain of repeated lockdowns is showing, with some Goulburn Valley educators and pupils arguing the Department of Education and Training should lighten the workload for VCE students.
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Others, including Victorian Education Minister James Merlino, say it’s too late in the game for changes to the curriculum, arguing cutting content would adversely affect students.
Kyabram P-12 College Year 12 student Morgan Vella said his VCE experience had “just been awful” and implored the Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority and the department to alter the study design of his year level’s final units.
“I’d argue this year was harder than last year because we’re going in and out of lockdowns,” he said.
“It’s just a mess really . . . especially with exams around the corner, it’s a really stressful time.”
Mr Vella said he wasn't alone in his struggle to keep up with the volume of content delivered as students switched into lockdowns with little notice.
A petition he co-wrote with a metropolitan Melbourne student gained nearly 2000 signatures online.
The petition says repeated lockdowns have put increased stress on the mental health of Year 12s and create “a wedge in how well we as students can learn and retain information”.
“I implore the VCAA and the Department of Education to alter the study design . . . to alleviate some of the stress of learning difficult concepts through this year’s constant, changing rules,” Mr Vella’s petition reads.
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This month, the Victorian Government confirmed the VCAA would provide extra support to students in their final years of school with the continuation of the Consideration of Educational Disadvantage program.
In a normal year, individual students are assessed for special consideration on a case by case basis.
But the CED process finalises VCE results for all students by considering data alongside exam results to calculate scores, factoring in the individual impact of school closures and disruptions on students’ health and learning.
Schools will also be able to apply for special consideration for VCAL students who have been “subject to significant disruptions”.
But the department ruled out any changes to the VCE study guide or final exams, which were introduced last year due to the ongoing impact remote learning had on student outcomes.
Mr Merlino said applying a “fair and consistent approach” was the government’s “first priority” for this year’s VCE and VCAL cohort.
“As schools and students are already well into the delivery of Unit 4, making amendments to study designs or examinations would disadvantage schools and students that have already worked hard to learn a significant portion of the content,” he said.
Mr Merlino said he was “confident” the CED process would address the periods of disruption and give students “the best chance of success”.
But Mr Vella doesn’t think the support has gone far enough.
“We still have half of Unit 4 to learn, which was cut out last year, so I don’t understand why they couldn’t just stop it now and say, ‘You’ll only be assessed to this point’, so we have extra time to revise,” he said.
“Year 12 is supposed to be enjoyable, you’re supposed to have fun with your friends but you just don’t know what’s happening — it feels isolating, like we’re on our own.”
Mr Vella said his teachers were an amazing support, but the department should have anticipated continued disruption to senior students’ learning.
“We feel let down,” he said.
Kyabram P12 College principal Paul Tozer said the school supported Mr Vella taking a stand, and he believed it “probably had an impact” on decisions made by education authorities.
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“It was a great display of leadership and he did it in a mature way,” Mr Tozer said.
But Mr Tozer said it was too late in the year to start taking things out of the curriculum and the system was “rigorously” designed to ensure students were not disadvantaged.
He said clear communication and honesty with his students was paramount.
“The main strategies we have for our students is to try to be really transparent, to assure them everyone is in the same boat,” he said.
“We think the people making the decisions usually get it pretty right.”
Mr Tozer said it was worth considering future consequences of cutting content from the curriculum.
“For students who do choose to go on to university, if there’s content missing (from Year 12) it can make it harder later on,” he said.
The same issues are being discussed across the Goulburn Valley.
Greater Shepparton Secondary College VCE co-ordinator Felicity Cummins said “appropriate provisions” were made last year to support students and this year would be no different.
“They will be looking at alternate ways to support students rather than changing the study guide so late in the game,” she said.
But Ms Cummins said while the Year 12s had been coping well at engaging online and were “used to it”, motivation was low.
Notre Dame principal John Cortese said students seemed excited and determined as they collected their books before the most recent lockdown, but energy quickly drooped.
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“Two or three days later, with each kid I’m talking to there is a tiredness,” he said.
Mr Cortese said there “absolutely” should have been a change to the workload for students.
He said the graduating class of 2021 would not be disadvantaged with respect to other cohorts across the state, because all Victorian year 12s would get the same special consideration.
“The reality is, though, this year’s kids are more disadvantaged than others with their academic progress because they can’t see an end in sight,” he said.
“To me that’s a big issue — they’re saying, ‘When’s remote 6.0 going to come?’”
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Mr Cortese said final exams were likely already written, which may have been a deciding factor.
But he said the three lockdowns in 2021 had an impact.
“There’s an expectation that schools cover the same topics and amount of work as we did in 2019, with no adjustments (to the study guide), and yet we’ve had to teach in a different way,” he said.
“Kids are learning a different way, the enthusiasm and energy they put in is different — to me that is the big difference.”