HSC disability provisions scheme warrants review

Last month, more than 76,000 NSW students sat their HSC exams. They are now waiting until December 18 for their results. The Herald will cover the day, as it always does, celebrating the top academic achievers and other success stories from the class of 2024.

A culmination of 13 years of schooling, the statewide assessments have been a source of stress, pride and, admittedly, sometimes disappointment for school-leavers since the 1960s, especially for the growing number over that time who have sought to use their marks to secure a spot in a university course.

But the extent to which a student’s university entrance mark – called the ATAR since 2009 – is based on their performance sitting in an exam room with a pen in their sweaty hand and a ticking clock is declining.

There’s the prevalence of early entry schemes, where thousands of university places are offered to HSC students just weeks before their final exams. Last year, Macquarie University admitted just 965 students based on their ATAR alone, compared to 5000 through other pathways. NSW Education Minister Prue Car believes the programs favour students from privileged backgrounds.

And, as Lucy Carroll reports today, there is a growing number of students – particularly at private schools, or from higher socio-economic areas – accessing special provisions to complete their final exams in the first place, also raising equity concerns.

The state school regulator has ordered a sweeping review of the HSC disability provisions scheme, as new data reveals almost 12,000 students lodged claims for extra help – such as additional time, rest breaks, or having a personal reader or writer – in this year’s tests.

One in five private school students now applies for some sort of provision for the exams. At some of Sydney’s highest-fee schools, the figure is above 30 per cent.

While schools in Sydney’s north and east have some of the highest numbers of applications, in parts of the city and the state with much higher numbers of children on the NDIS or in learning support, fewer students access this assistance: the distribution of applications for HSC support does not match what we know about these students.

These provisions are supposed to make HSC exams more fair; to level the playing field, so all students can perform to their full potential and not be disadvantaged by unfair factors in the exam environment. But this data suggests there are issues with the current system, where the needs of more privileged students are more likely to be catered for.

The impacts of this flow on to our state’s universities and which types of students achieve the high marks needed for in-demand courses.

The HSC disability provisions scheme seems to be an area where attempts to create more fairness have instead achieved the opposite. Total equality in an education system with so much inequality is an ideal impossible to achieve but the regulator is right to raise alarm bells and a review of the scheme is appropriate.

Bevan Shields sends an exclusive newsletter to subscribers each week. Sign up to receive his Note from the Editor.