'We don't want this to be a dirty little secret': The school ditching the ATAR

A gravestone loomed over parents and students as they packed into a theatre at Templestowe College.

The headstone, which was projected onto a large screen during an information night in October, read "R.I.P. VCE".

The principal of the trailblazing state school, Peter Hutton, went on to explain that finishing school without an ATAR would become the default option for students.

"If one of our aims is to encourage a love of learning, why would you make their final two years of learning a hell?" he said.

In a radical move, students now have to "opt in" if they want an ATAR.

The rest of students will undertake the unscored VCE or the hands-on Victorian Certificate of Applied Learning and finish without a ranking.

A Fairfax Media investigation this week revealed that some schools were pushing low-performing students into the unscored VCE to boost their results.

Templestowe College has a different approach to the increasingly popular VCE option, which lets students receive the certificate without sitting exams.

"We don't want this to be a dirty little secret where kids are meant to feel ashamed," Mr Hutton said. "I want to bring it out into the light and present it as a really viable option."

He said the move would alleviate stress among students and ensure teaching was focused on learning rather than teaching to a test.

He said it would also benefit those who choose the ATAR pathway because they attended extra classes where they learnt how to maximise their performance.

Mr Hutton said the ATAR had become "harder and harder" to justify since the uncapping of university places.

"Essentially the unis can take as many kids as they can put through," he said.

"Perhaps it was fit for purpose once, but why should every kid be subjected to this ranking system when it is only the top 10 to 15 per cent who are being ranked for physio, medicine and dentistry?"

Around 15 per cent of students at the school are doing at least one unscored VCE subject, and many of these students will finish without an ATAR. This number is expected to increase. The school encourages these students to take time off after they finish school and then apply to directly to universities.

Melanie Martin is the sort of student who probably would have received an ATAR in the '90s.

She receive an A-plus average for all her unit 1 and 2 subjects last year, but decided to wave goodbye to the ATAR this year.

She is doing the unscored VCE, and hopes to volunteer for the SES when she finishes school before joining the police force.

The 16-year-old said her whole approach to school had changed.

"It's more enjoyable," she said. "I am remembering things, and going in depth rather than just skimming the surface and learning facts for school-based assessments," she said.

The school has also abolished year levels and under a new pilot, Templestowe College student can apply for any course at Swinburne University without an ATAR.

The school's move away from the ATAR coincides with universities increasingly looking at different ways of selecting their students.

Australian Council for Educational Research's research director in tertiary education, Daniel Edwards, said new approaches to admissions had sprung up since the introduction of the demand-driven system in 2012.

He said universities were more open to partnering with schools, and were encouraging mature-age students to apply directly through universities.

Dr Edwards said admissions should not just be based on the ATAR, and suggested that universities focus on particular VCE subject scores or offer admissions tests.

Victoria University's senior research fellow George Messinis said there was "growing skepticism" about the value of ATARs among employers and some institutions within the tertiary sector.

"The ATAR measures the end result, but you don't see the cause of the results," Dr Messinis said.

He said it was crucial that universities started measuring how a student's academic performance had improved over time.

"For example, for someone who gets an ATAR of 60, how do you know whether they came from a low base and have learnt very fast and have the potential therefore in tertiary education to do really well."

A Victorian Tertiary Admissions Centre spokeswoman said 80 per cent of undergraduate courses require the ATAR and this has been the case for a number of years.

"In most instances, however, the ATAR is one tool used in selection," she said. "Other factors considered may be, special entry access schemes, access and equity, additional criteria such as interviews, folios, auditions, forms and similar."

- The Age