Proposed minimum numeracy and literacy levels for VCE graduation

[Lear]

‘The VCE is set for its biggest shake-up in decades, as the Andrews government looks into setting minimum literacy and numeracy standards that all students would have to meet in order to graduate.’

More can be read here
https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/vce-set-for-its-biggest-shake-up-in-almost-30-years-20180226-p4z1tq.html?commentId=f41c3190-e9a5-4d7b-9809-5596a14450b9

What are your opinions on imposing such a change? We were just recently debating if English should be compulsory and now there is talks of making math compulsory too.

[The Special One]

Maths being compulsory I agree with.

But really this is just a way to thin the herd due to too many uni students and deciding job prospects in higher education.

[Mada438]

‘The VCE is set for its biggest shake-up in decades, as the Andrews government looks into setting minimum literacy and numeracy standards that all students would have to meet in order to graduate.’

More can be read here
https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/vce-set-for-its-biggest-shake-up-in-almost-30-years-20180226-p4z1tq.html?commentId=f41c3190-e9a5-4d7b-9809-5596a14450b9

What are your opinions on imposing such a change? We were just recently debating if English should be compulsory and now there are talks of making math compulsory too.

I reckon maths should be compulsory. There is a lot of real-world applications that require even a basic understanding of the standard year 11/12 mathematics courses (general maths for NSW, i believe VCE calls it further maths?)
This is similar to some of the proposed NAPLAN (a set of statewide tests for years 3,5,7,9) changes where failure to get particular bands/grades in certain areas means you will have to repeat the tests next year,
While i believe some level of this sort minimum standards stuff is necessary, too much is definitely a bad thing

[Bell9565]

My personal opinion on compulsory subjects is that if english is compulsory, so should maths - however neither should be made to be in your top 4 subjects when calculating your ATAR. If you're a maths/science student it's bad enough having to do english full stop, let alone have it pull down your atar because it will be scaled like 10 below all your other subjects when it's not required in your field. And if feel as if they make maths/science students go through doing english when they would rather not, maths should be compulsory for english/humanaties students since I do agree both english and maths have very important real world applications.