Australiaâs Education Minister Dan Tehan has said there will be âno Year 13â for final year students as the education system continues to adapt during the coronavirus crisis.
âThe message out of education counsel is clear, there will be no year 13, no mass repeating,â Tehan told media on Tuesday.
âEvery student will get an ATAR certificate so they can go on to university, vocational employment and employment next year.â
He said the government will be working further with the university and vocational education sectors to determine how ATAR scores will be calculated and assessed, though each state and territory will âjurisdictional responsibilityâ in terms of the assessment process.
Earlier in the day Victoriaâs Premier Daniel Andrews addressed how the second term of school will look like for residents as the coronavirus lockdown continues.
Andrews said all children who are able to learn at home from next week, should very much do so. He also spoke about year 12 students and final year exams.
Victoria had brought term oneâs end forward from Friday March 27 to Tuesday March 24. Next week the âschool holidayâ period will be over.
Tuesday April 14 will be a pupil-free day, and term 2 will start Wednesday April 15 .
âSchool is going to look very different in term 2,â said the premier. âIf you can learn from home, you must learn from home.
âAnd weâve done the work, having brought those school holidays forward, weâve done the work with the IT and all the other practical measures that are necessary to have many hundreds of thousands of students learning from home.â
Andrews said those children who canât learn from home will not be âdisadvantaged because of circumstances beyond their own controlâ. Schools will still be open with the same courses being run.
These students could be kids whose parents are essential health workers or supermarket staff, he said as examples. Or there could be âdigital issues for some students, despite the work that weâve doneâ.
Victoriaâs Education Minister James Merlino said all students who require a laptop or tablet will receive one.
âWeâve got around 4,000 SIM cards, a thousand dongles, weâre working with internet providers,â he told reporters.
âWeâve got more than 6,000 laptops and tablets within the Department of Education and Training, and weâve got many, many thousands more computers in our schools right across Victoria.â
Year 12 students and their parents across the country have expressed concern about interrupted learning ahead of final exams.
âIt is our intention to have students that are completing their VCE, we want them to be through the system, to have completed their VCE this year,â said Andrews.
âThey normally wouldnât get an ATAR until next year anyway, but we want to have the year done with. There are a number of weeks at the end of the year so, it may be a longer year where we need to make up some lost time. We may need to catch up.â
Merlino added, âThere will be no need for a year 13â.
NSWâs term ends on April 9, and Premier Gladys Berejiklian said last month the planning process for future alternative learning methods has commenced, as âwe donât know what the next five or six weeks will look likeâ.
âThis has been a good chance for us, an opportunity for us, to make sure that whether itâs through web-based tools or whether itâs through home learning, that we have the systems in place to support our children, to support our students, given what we might face into the future,â she said at the time.
All states and territories advised parents to keep children at home in term one where possible, though schools have been open for essential workersâ kids.