Major changes to VCE from 2000

Common Assessment Tasks are to be abolished, and the range of VCE subjects revised, under changes to be implemented from 2000.

The changes are the result of recommendations made to the Minister for Education, Mr Gude, in December 1997 by the VCE Review Committee, chaired by Professor Kwong Lee Dow.

"When I initiated this review in early 1997, I asked the Committee to investigate ways to improve an already excellent certificate - taking into account changes in year 11 and 12 retention rates, the youth labour market and technological advancement," Mr Gude said.

"Today's package retains the best of the old VCE - whilst delivering an academically rigorous certificate catering to a broadening range of student interests, abilities and aspirations in a fair and less stressful manner.

"Students, parents and teachers will be particularly pleased to see that Common Assessment Tasks (CATs) which were perceived to have stress, workload and authentication problems, are to be replaced.

"This means the end of school-assessed projects which require large amounts of unsupervised work outside the classroom and a heavy dependence on resources not available to all students," Mr Gude said.

Students in most subjects will instead be required to undertake a series of more concise tasks which would normally be performed as part of classroom tuition e.g. a practical experiment, test, short essay or oral presentation.

These will be set by the classroom teacher and taken over a shorter time-frame and subject to closer classroom supervision than was the case with CATs.

"Four subjects will discontinue after 2000, eight new subjects have been added and five subjects have been merged. All remaining subjects have been or will be reviewed and their content improved to ensure that our students are receiving the most relevant and up-to-date curriculum," Mr Gude said.

The most popular VCE subjects, which are taken by about 75 per cent of students, have already been reviewed, improved and re-accredited for introduction in 2000. The remaining subjects will be accredited during 1999 for implementation in 2001.

Mr Gude said students would also have greater choice in English, which would remain compulsory, but students could, from 2001, choose one of three different English subjects to be offered at year 12.

English as a second language will continue to be offered.

Some Vocational Education and Training (VET) subjects will be able to have an enhanced contribution to a student's Equivalent National Tertiary Entrance Rank(ENTER) by 2000.

This will enable some students to develop work skills as part of their VCE, while keeping their options open for tertiary studies.

The VCE will remain as a single certificate requiring school students to satisfactorily complete 16 units of study over a minimum of two years.

Major changes include:

• From 2001 Year 12 students will now be able to choose between three English studies to satisfy VCE requirements - "English", "English Literature" or "English Language". To date, students have been required to successfully complete "English" or English as a second language to be awarded their VCE.
• No more than two English subjects will be able to be counted in a student's four best subjects for the purposes of calculating the ENTER for university entrance.
• Common Assessment Tasks (CATs) which have resulted in stressful workloads for students and teachers and authentication problems will be replaced by shorter, more closely supervised exercises (which are normally performed as part of regular classroom instruction e.g. tests, experiments, short essays, oral presentations). These will be set by the classroom teacher and, to ensure equity between schools, moderated against the school's exam results.
• From 2000, graded assessments will be introduced for some VET studies allowing students to count one VET subject in their four best subjects for calculation of their ENTER for entrance to university.
• From 1999, up to eight of the 16 units required for satisfactory completion of the VCE may be obtained across two VET programs
• In some arts and technology studies which focus on the creation of a product - such as a folio - the current CAT system will be retained.
• An increased weighting of examinations in some subjects whilst the nature and scheduling of examinations will remain essentially unchanged. All subjects (except art and agriculture) will have an external exam component of at least 50%.

Most of the revised and re-accredited subjects will be introduced in 2000 with the remaining subjects to be introduced in 2001. The new assessment procedures will apply from 2000.

(News Release, Office of the Minister for Education, 15 January 1999)