Victorian year 12 students' VCE results and Atar to be adjusted for Covid impact

Every final year Victorian high school student will be individually assessed for adverse impacts of coronavirus, which will be reflected in their ranking for admission into university, as part of measures introduced by the state government to ensure the pandemic does not hinder their future education.

The Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority (VCAA) will introduce a wide-ranging “consideration of educational disadvantage” process to calculate each student’s Australian Tertiary Admission Ranking, which measures a student’s overall academic achievement compared with other final-year students in Australia. In a normal year, certain students are assessed for special consideration on a case-by-case basis but in 2020 every student in Victoria will undergo this assessment.

Related: Kids Helpline says demand in Victoria for its counselling service rose 8% in July

“This is quite an extraordinary change,” the state’s education minister, James Merlino, said on Friday. “We’ll look at things such as school closures, we’ll look at things such as long absences. We’ll look at things, for example, such as significant increase in family responsibilities as a result of Covid-19 and we’ll, of course, consider the mental health and wellbeing of students during this period.”

He said students could face their exams with confidence that they would not be disadvantaged as a result of Covid-19, despite the pandemic affecting Victoria more severely than the rest of Australia thus far, and students remaining under stage three or four lockdown depending on their region.

At the end of the school year, The VCAA will consider a range of data alongside exam results, including a student’s expected achievement levels before the impact of coronavirus, school assessments completed prior to remote and flexible learning, the general achievement test, and a range of statistical analyses to calculate final results.

This may include assessing the individual impact of coronavirus on each student, including school closures, direct impacts on the health of a student, students dealing with substantial extra family responsibilities, ongoing issues with remote learning and mental health challenges. This will then be used to calculate a student’s final results and Atar rank.

The state government will also provide $28.5m for 1,500 school staff to undergo additional mental health training in partnership with the mental health support organisation Headspace. It will also fund specialist schools with secondary students to recruit a school-based mental health practitioner. Mental health programs in primary schools will be expanded.

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“We have always said, through the course of this year, particularly going into flexible and remote learning, that our vulnerable kids will be the most disadvantaged,” Merlino said. “This is the toughest element of going through Covid-19 in a school environment. We’ve seen higher absence rates from our vulnerable cohorts. We’ve seen an increase, a sharp increase, in mental health reports within the schools’ internal reporting processes.”

Guardian Australia revealed on Wednesday that calls to Australia’s only free 24/7 counselling service for young people, Kids Helpline, had seen an 8% increase in demand from Victorian children in July compared with the previous month. The Victorian figure contrasted with a national increase of 2% over the same period.

• Crisis support services can be reached 24 hours a day: Lifeline 13 11 14; Suicide Call Back Service 1300 659 467; Kids Helpline 1800 551 800; MensLine Australia 1300 789 978; Beyond Blue 1300 224 636