A leading Australian educator and founder of Australia’s largest home-schooling organisation is calling for an overhaul of the stress-inducing ATAR system, as approximately 250,000 Year 12 students across the country anticipate their results next week.
With fewer than half of those likely to rely on their admission rank exclusively to go onto to tertiary study, Ellen Brown, founder of Euka Future Learning, says a growing number of secondary school students are turning to home-school – whose students don’t require an ATAR for university entry – so they can avoid the mental toll of being ranked against their peers.
It comes as home-school numbers hit a nationwide peak of 46,619, a 112 per cent increase since 2019.
“No exams, and no ATAR – the thought alone is appealing to a lot of students and their parents,” Brown says.
“That’s why many are leaving mainstream schools, particularly if they don’t have any great interest in going onto university – at least not straight away.
“Home-schoolers aren’t eligible for an ATAR, but a growing number is gaining entry to tertiary institutions anyway, through other pathways – and they’re doing so without the stress of ‘all nighters’ in Year 12, only to be compared to the rest of their cohort.
“Partnerships have been established between homeschool programs and universities and colleges around the country, which give students direct access without an admission rank.
“Year 11 and 12 in home-school is now being acknowledged as a mainstream equivalent. An ATAR isn’t an assessment of a child’s intelligence, it’s a rank, and there’s always reports of some students strategically taking certain subjects because they’re weighted better, even if they don’t have any real interest in those subjects.”
Brown says that, although students might get the ATAR they need, many then then find, “they’re ill equipped for whichever degree they chose – that’s not a great educational outcome, in my opinion”.
“The whole system needs to change.”
She says home-school caters for a range of children and for a range of reasons and says she’s “hearing
more and more stories of families – hundreds, if not thousands – who just don’t want to go through the ATAR process”.
A study by Macquarie University of 367 Year 12 students found 19 per cent were considered to be ‘clinically stressed’.
Brown says she’d be very surprised if those particular children performed to the best of their ability in that condition.
“It’s heartbreaking to think we, as parents and educators, are piling so much pressure on our kids, not necessarily to learn, but to beat their classmates,” she says.
“I’ve always applied the ‘why’ principle in my teaching – why do I need to know this? If the answer is to be ranked higher than someone else, then we’ve got it all wrong.”
