Victorian Year 12 students may have to study into 2021 in order to receive an ATAR, Premier Daniel Andrews has revealed.
In an interview with the ABC, Andrews said the coronavirus pandemic has put strain on the usual high school schedule, possibly pushing back important dates in the year.
He said the ultimate goal was to ensure students receive their ATAR no matter what. The Victorian government is currently in talks with universities and TAFE, including in other states, to accommodate potential alternative arrangements.
“It is my aim if they can get an ATAR, if not within this calendar year, then very soon thereafter,” he said on Sunday night.
“We’ve got six or eight weeks at the end of the year that we can catch up.”
Andrews’ own son, Noah, is among the students affected by the uncertainty.
“I know it’s very frustrating, including in my own household,” he said.
“I can’t give Noah, who is in Year 12, all the answers he wants, but as soon as we can, we will.
“The key point here is to get this right.”
In Victoria, school holidays were brought forward to coincide with the introduction of lockdown restrictions. During this time, the government prepared the education system to cope with students learning from home.
Andrews said both online classes and sending work via mail are being looked into for the coming term.
“I don’t think term two will look like a normal beginning of term two,” he said.
“It is going to be different. There’ll be an arrangement where some students will be learning from home and that’s why it was so important to bring the school holidays forward, so we can do that work around online learning.”
