Australia`s Metropolitan Daily, Feb. 28-Australia`s Victoria College entrance examination (VCE) is set to usher in its biggest change in 30 years. Victoria`s government is considering setting minimum language and math standards for all students, according to the source, and only those who meet that standard can graduate.
Reports of continuing retrogression in students` academic abilities have sparked heated debate in Australia. (James Merlino), the director of the state education department, urged the state curriculum and evaluation administration (VCAA) to review the standards for the college entrance examination.
Director of Education, Victoria, (James Merlino)
While the VCE will provide each student with their grades and rankings, minimum standards can be used to assess whether they already have the basic reading, writing and math skills they need on a day-to-day basis. Ma Lianlao pointed out that although the VCE examination has been in place for nearly 30 years, he hopes to introduce more measures to improve students` reading, writing and mathematical skills, only on the premise of meeting the minimum Chinese and mathematical standards. In order to obtain the VCE certificate or VCAL (Victoria High School Application skills Certificate) certificate.
Lili (Megan Lilly), head of career development at the Australian Industrial Group, welcomed government`s proposal, saying more and more employers were beginning to worry about young people`s poor literacy in reading and writing and mathematics. This could lead to lower productivity, more duplication, serious misunderstandings and even workplace safety issues, she said.
Lilly points out that the current VCE does not make a good distinction between students, and that more information about graduates` reading and writing and math skills can give employers more confidence in the employees they employ and also allow more graduates to find jobs.
However, Dr. Hardy (John Hattie), an honorary professor at the University of Melbourne, said the minimum competency standard was a double-edged sword that could cause more young people to drop out of school.
In fact, (NSW) in New South Wales and (WA) in Western Australia have introduced similar minimum capacity standards, but such reforms have been controversial. While these measures did help improve NAPLAN scores, they also led to higher dropout rates and increased pressure on students to learn. Just last week, the New State government dropped one of the most controversial requirements of the minimum competency standard, changing the requirement that ninth-graders` NAPLAN scores be linked to eligibility for the HSC test, starting in 10th grade.
Zhu Lan Desiree Zhu letter as study abroad Immigration Group retention Manage
Zhu Lan, a graduate manager and registered education consultant at Melbourne, a consultancy group for studying abroad, said that college freshmen were currently referring to the results of the ATAR ranking, according to an analysis by Zhu Lan, a registered education consultant. Although the detailed requirements for the minimum scores of mathematics and Chinese in the VCE reform have not yet been published, according to the information already disclosed, the main purpose of this reform is to set a pass line for the students` achievement in mathematics in the two basic subjects during the middle school.
Once implemented, it means that the graduation threshold will be raised accordingly, and the most direct result is that some students may not be able to graduate smoothly, that is, get the VCE Certificate..
Zhu Lan reminded that both local and international students need to go all out and not take it lightly in the course of 11th and 12th graders. For the latter, if they fail to graduate, they are more likely to be forced to return home, rather than missing the chance of a prestigious school.
VCE is a certificate education in Victoria, Australia. It is the acronym of Victoria Certificate of Education. Similar to the Chinese college entrance examination, VCE education begins in 11th grade and ends in 12th grade for two years. Corresponding to Chinese education, grade 11 is equivalent to the second grade of high school in China, and grade 12 is equivalent to the third grade of high school in China. The school starts around the end of January and ends the school year in early December. The curriculum is rich, including mathematics, foreign language, biology, physics, economics, accounting and so on.
