Lockdowns are awful for everyone and catastrophic for some, but spare a thought for this year’s cohort of year 12 students, especially in New South Wales.
Last year, thanks to Covid, they lost many weeks of face-to-face learning. This year they are studying for an exam that may not go ahead. What with bussing – then not bussing – them to a stadium for vaccinations, arguments about kids who are able to continue with face-to-face teaching competing with those who have been learning online, being able/not able to collect major works to complete them at home, worries about how such works can be assessed during Covid, and even whether the exams can go ahead at all, their heads must be spinning.
And it’s no use asking their teachers or principals what’s happening because they don’t know either. As one secondary principal said: “The government just needs to make a decision.”
For many people, the higher school certificate is the jewel in NSW education’s crown. Some experts believe it is the fairest way of judging student achievement, regardless of school or background.
Angelo Gavrielatos, president of the NSW Teachers Federation, argues: “Unlike our funding system, the common curriculum and credential unifies our schools in shared purpose, goals and standards.”
A statewide examination is also mandated in the NSW Education Act so the discussion is not frivolous and it is becoming increasingly urgent. “If the exam was cancelled now,” a principal said, “there’s time for schools to pivot and get started on a new pathway for this year’s students. The more we delay, the greater the chance of chaos. Worse, by continuing to dither, the government is entrenching anxiety, uncertainty and frustration among those doing year 12 and their equally bewildered parents.”
Adrian Piccoli, a past NSW education minister, agrees that a decision needs to be made. “Certainty,” he says, “is essential.” He believes the HSC should proceed, pointing out that anything else does a disservice to regional students who have been learning and preparing for the exams as usual. But he also makes this point. “There are two things that matter about year 12 and the HSC. It’s a rite of passage into adulthood, farewelling teachers and friends, which has probably been lost already. The other is that the Atar allows universities to ration in-demand places, but for a relatively small number of students.”
Judy King, a former principal of Riverside girls high, while agreeing with Piccoli about needing certainty, sees it differently. She worries about the effect rolling lockdowns or a Covid-positive student could have on kids mid-exam. “Will there have to be millions of misadventures?” she asks. “We’re awash with standards frameworks in NSW,” she argues, “including the school excellence framework and the detailed descriptors for every HSC band. All any of the excellent alternative solutions require to be implemented is for our government to trust the teaching profession.”
There are many alternatives. Serious work is being done on creating a national learner profile for every student. Although exactly what should be included in the profile is still under discussion, it could include school assessment marks, school achievements – sport, debating, leadership, etc – exam results like the HSC and the minimum standards test – over years 11 and 12. As one principal suggested to me, why not trial the learner profile in 2021?
Another experienced principal pointed out that many students are already offered early entry into university. This can be contingent on their HSC results but not always. She also said the HSC and a high Atar was of most concern to a small percentage of students, about 15%. She is concerned about “the large number of students with a trade lined up. Due to Covid they can’t get their driver’s licence or white card [work safety training] or do work placement”. She said these students made up 40% of the cohort. “Why isn’t anyone talking about them?” she asks. “I am so tired of all the decisions being made for people who want to be able to say their child got over 90.”
And it is impossible to ignore that the HSC and the resulting school ranking tables are important marketing tools for high-fee private schools and many selective schools, of which NSW has more than any other state. Many parents pay a lot of money in search of a high Atar, whether directly in school fees or indirectly through coaching colleges and tutoring.
But there are other alternatives – such as a school assessment mark moderated against the school’s HSC performance in the past which, according to one principal, tends to be pretty consistent. Or, if the government was prepared to spend some money, investigating the sophisticated software in use in Australia’s universities, where students are able to do their exams online.
No doubt none of these solutions will be perfect. How could they be when they have to be delivered in the face of a health emergency? But the sooner the government bites the bullet, the less problems there are likely to be with whatever is chosen.
And the government may be coming to this conclusion. It has announced a week’s delay in the written examination and in marking major works due to health and safety risks. Watch this space, perhaps, but students, their families, teachers and principals are getting sick of waiting for whatever happens next. And, as Piccoli points out, we may be obsessing over not very much. School students in Christchurch lost a whole term of their education after the earthquake that devastated that town. Research has subsequently revealed that they were generally not disadvantaged by the disruption. Kids, if we give them the room to be, may be more resilient than we think.
Having said that, Gavrielatos sounds a warning: “To weaken the HSC would naturally lead to a competitive educational market with privatised syllabuses and a hierarchy of credentials. And we know from experience that whenever education markets are created, the already privileged gain even further advantage.”
As is becoming increasingly obvious, we cannot control this virus, what we can control is our response to it. Instead of regarding the effect of Covid and lockdowns on the HSC as an unmitigated disaster, we have a chance to grasp this opportunity to do something creative, like trial learner profiles or run the exam online or use a moderated school assessment – or a combination of all these.
What the right path might be is up to educators to decide and they are eager to do just that. But the window to be able to pull off anything properly is rapidly closing. Our government needs to make a decision. Stat.
• Jane Caro is a novelist, writer and social commentator
