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Senior students are calling for the right to take one or two “no-questions-asked” mental health days each term and want the number of hours of VCE class time they must attend cut to help ease what they warn is a mental health crisis in schools.
Peak student body the Victorian Student Representative Council has urged state Education Minister James Merlino to do more to ease the mental burden on students who have had VCE studies thrown into chaos by unpredictable moves in and out of lockdown this year.
Linh Dang, executive committee member of the Victorian SRC, says students should be able to take time out of class to look after their mental health. Credit:Chris Hopkins
Key among their recommendations is lowering the attendance pass rate for VCE subjects from the current 50 hours per unit.
Doing so would let students take more time out from study to safeguard their mental health, student executive advisory committee member Linh Dang said.
“Students can’t choose what days they have bad mental health,” the year 11 student from Maidstone in Melbourne’s west said. “We get to take days off when we are physically sick, so it seems unfair that taking a day off and taking care of yourself when your mental health is bad should be something that’s not within the rules because of the attendance rate.”
The student representative council, comprised of elected senior students from across the state, has also called for a limit on the number of SACs (school-assessed coursework) a school can set in a week, arguing the all-important assessments are too often clustered together.
Council executive committee member Grace, a year 12 student from Swan Hill in northern Victoria, said the council had heard reports of students having as many as nine SACs scheduled in a week.
“You just feel like you can’t study adequately for each one, so you’re not prepared for any of them, rather than perhaps having one each week that you can really focus on and make sure you’re doing your best,” said Grace, who did not want to give her surname.
Along with exams, SACs are a major component of VCE assessment.
The council has also asked Mr Merlino to reinstate last year’s adjusted VCE study designs, which had their content scaled back following the move to remote learning.
The student executive advisory committee met virtually with Mr Merlino last week to make their case for further help for the VCE class of 2021.
Linh said the effects of lockdowns and unpredictable moves between face-to-face and remote learning had accumulated over the past 18 months, leaving many students in a mentally vulnerable state.
“Over time, from last year with the long lockdown to this year and the mini snap lockdowns, it’s just taking a very big mental toll on students; just adapting from classroom to online learning, that’s quite taxing,” she said.
“We wanted schools and the [Education] Department to take this into consideration, especially for VCE students completing their year 12 studies.”
In response, Mr Merlino said he knew “how challenging the pandemic has been for Victorian students, especially those in their final years of school”.
He said the government was working closely with the student representative council to make sure students have the support they need, but did not commit to adopting any of their specific proposals.
Rules around attendance pass rates and the timing of SACs are set by schools.
“We want all year 12 students to reach their full potential and I encourage any students who are facing challenges to have a conversation with their teachers and school leaders, who can make adjustments to school-based assessments and provide vital mental health support to keep students healthy,” Mr Merlino said.
Last week the Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority confirmed that all VCE and VCAL students will receive individual consideration of educational disadvantage this year, in a repeat of last year’s process.
The General Achievement Test was also postponed for the second time and will be sat on August 12.
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