Wrong focus for VCE review

February 19, 1997
Issue 

By Ryan Batchelor

MELBOURNE — The Victorian minister for education, Phil Gude, has announced a review of the Victorian Certificate of Education.

The VCE was introduced in 1989 to replace the old exam-oriented Higher School Certificate. To establish a standard assessment that would be fairer to all students and better test their level of knowledge throughout the year, a system of common assessment tasks (CATs) was introduced.

Currently, students are required to complete two school-assessed CATs, and one externally-assessed exam CAT. Students must also complete an average of eight work requirements per subject. With most students doing five subjects at year 12 level, concerns about stress levels have prompted a review of this system.

Yet reforming the system to place greater emphasis on end-of-year exams will increase the level of stress for students, teachers and parents. The real way to reduce stress is to provide a schooling environment that is cooperative and focused on learning, not just achieving results.

It has been argued that the CAT system leads to cheating, and there have reportedly been cases of richer students paying tutors to do their CATs for them. The answer is not more exams. The government should aim to give students from disadvantaged socio-economic backgrounds the opportunities that richer students can pay for.

The VCE certainly needs to be reviewed, but it would be more beneficial to look at class sizes, teacher-student ratios, and the level of government funding needed to provide proper learning opportunities. Four years ago, Victoria had one of the highest teacher/student ratios in the country; following the Kennett government's massive attacks on state education, it now has one of the lowest.

The focus of the review committee on how the VCE can best suit business interests is alarming. The nine-member committee will be chaired by Professor Kwong Lee Dow, Dean of Education at Melbourne University and chair of the Victorian Board of Studies. Its members are to be drawn from experts in the field of education, including three members of the minister's Business Advisory Committee on Education, which was — coincidentally — named only a week before the announcement of the VCE review, and whose members are drawn from corporations such as Telstra, IBM, ICI, and AMP.

Gude, in describing the role of the committee, said: "[They] will advise me on the way business views ... the standard of VCE graduates in terms of employment, and how to better gauge what business requires from the education system."

Although the committee contains three business leaders, it has no teachers or students, and only one principal from a government school. It is hard to see how it can effectively analyse the VCE.

While business appears to be gaining massively from the changes to education, the education system is not gaining from business. The government has progressively slashed education in the name of a "balanced budget", while large corporations received special concessions and tax breaks. It would make far more sense to tax big business properly taxed, and spend the money on providing a proper education system.

Another point the review committee will consider is whether VCE should be reduced from a two-year to a one-year course. The motive behind this is again purely economic. A two-year VCE puts the government at a disadvantage in terms of marketing the certificate internationally, and charging overseas students up to $8000 a year in fees.

The review strengthens the trend whereby education has increasingly become a form of work force training rather than a means of learning in the broader sense. Most students chose subjects now motivated primarily by what may prove beneficial career-wise. The number of students studying history at Year 12 has fallen from almost 50% 20 years ago, to around 10% today.

With a recent study by the federal government showing that one-third of 14-year-olds lack basic literacy skills, a review of the VCE, and education in general, needs to concentrate on what students need: more resources and funding for state education. Business has no place in education, and should not dictate what is taught in schools.

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