The HSC is set to undergo its biggest overhaul in 17 years after NSW Education Minister Adrian Piccoli announced a range of sweeping reforms on Tuesday.
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According to the minister, the reforms are designed to improve learning for students and boost the standard of NSW school graduates.
However Keira MP Ryan Park has warned that unless the reforms are supported by a funding package the government could be “setting kids up to fail”.
“If these reforms were currently in place, around half of the students across NSW would fail,” Mr Park said.
“What I expect to see along with these reforms is a funding package to help support our teachers and students, to lift their results.
‘’We need to ensure we give our students every opportunity to reach their full potential. I am happy to look at sensible reforms, however what I’m not interested in is setting our kids up to fail.
“What we now need to see is the minister hightail it down to Canberra to talk to Malcolm about committing to the full funding for Gonski.”
Under the reforms, from 2020, students will need to demonstrate they’ve met a minimum standard in literacy and numeracy to receive the HSC.
This will impact Year 9 students as early as next year when they have their first chance to meet the new standard by achieving minimum band 8 NAPLAN results.
The bulk of the reforms will come into effect for Year 12 students in 2019.
These include the introduction of a science extension course and encouraging more students to study high level maths.
Other changes include syllabus updates to English, maths, science and history, modifying exam questions to encourage deeper analysis and fairer assessments to reduce student stress.
“These changes will strengthen the integrity and international standing of the HSC and better prepare students for work, training, university and life after school,” Mr Piccoli said.
