![If not ATAR, then what? If not ATAR, then what?](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/mark.kearney/a2dfa6aa-0e6a-41b9-ab2b-f532b00806ee.jpg/r0_194_3760_2309_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
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Demolishing the ATAR score could undermine the VCE and encourage universities to set their own entrance exams, a process “open to gaming”, one Bendigo principal has said.
Bendigo South East College acting principal Dale Pearce made the comments after reports students at Melbourne school Templestowe College would need to opt in if they wanted to receive an ATAR score at the end of their VCE.
He said an unscored VCE might be appropriate for a "small number" of students battling illness or learning difficulties but it was a choice he discouraged when principal of Bendigo Senior Secondary College.
"We felt that it led to some students cruising, and not realising their potential," Mr Pearce said.
He said universities still relied on the ATAR to determine who was offered a place and not attaining the an entrance score would disadvantage young people who then decided to pursue a tertiary qualification.
Many courses that used interviews and folios to narrow down their still paid heed to students' VCE performance, Mr Pearce said.
Rob Stephenson, head of La Trobe University’s Bendigo campus, also believed students were , especially those wanting to pursue careers in fields where minimum ATAR scores were required.
“Students shouldn't be limiting their options,” he said.
But ATAR was not the “be all and end all”, Mr Stephenson said. His university’s Aspire program offers early placements to school leavers whose community service and extra-curricular involvement showed they were university-ready.
A low ATAR score also did not mean students would not flourish at university, he said.
If enough schools did away with the ATAR, universities would eventually begin their own entrance exams, like in the US, a system Mr Pearce said was "open to gaming".
“It lends its self to a whole regime, a whole industry who are paid to prepare students to take [entance exams], it would undermine the VCE significantly,” he said.
Mr Stephenson feared external examinations would be more of a “do or die situation” than the VCE process where assessment was carried out periodically throughout a student’s final year.
Mr Pearce, who is also a Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority board member, said the body was focussed on making VCE more meaningful for all students.
Recent changes to the VCE - including new subject Extended Investigation - gave students more chance to perform in-depth, long-term research, he said.
Study design changes were also underway to narrow the amount of content students needed to learn.