1. I don't think it's fair that some students are limited by the school they go to. Everyone should have a level ground in the VCE. Schools ranked in the bottom half of the state usually will not have the same resources or ability to extend their students in the same way the schools in the top half can. The quality of education should be the same for everyone to give them a fair chance in succeeding in their own VCE journeys, rather than being penalised for going to a certain school. This doesn't mean that you can't achieve your goal ATAR if you go to a lower-ranked school, it's just that everyone realistically should be given the same quality of education.
This problem isn't unique to VCE, you'll find this all over the world. Additionally, it's not just the fact that "good schools produce good students", good students are also naturally drawn to good schools. A lot of the times, it's not that the quality of education makes schools like MHS, Macrob, Scotch, etc have higher-scoring students, it's that these high-achievers are naturally more drawn to these schools.
A common misconception imo. Students from these selective schools were perform just as well being placed in a lower rank school, if not almost as well. It's not the school which makes a student great, but rather the students which make the school great.
The only such place of advantage would be a private school where they have the money to be able to afford better teachers...
I completely agree. People way too often like to use 'I go to a bad school' as an excuse for not doing well without reflecting on themselves.
Very very few students are from your typical public school (I.e a lower ranked school) whereas, in my experience, almost 90% of the students in my course either went to a selective school or private school. Why is the case? Surely the overwhelming majority of people who have the capacity to be competitive enough to enter such courses didn’t up being in a selective or private school? Why aren’t we seeing more students from lower rank schools?
Speaking from someone who goes to a public school in regional VIC ranked in the bottom 30 schools in the state: it's not that people from 'lower ranked schools' can't do well due to the quality of education they receive. There are several reasons, from what I've seen people usually see no point in doing well.
The highest ATAR my school ever saw was a 91, the girl who got it received first-round offer to Commerce at Melbourne but she then swapped her preferences and ended up studying business at ACU. There are many, many other examples of people from my school, as well as surrounding schools, who get good results but end up going to less 'prestigious' universities or courses (or some who don't go to uni at all), because they simply don't
want to.
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As someone who has been at one of these disadvantaged / underperforming / underrepresented public schools since year 7, I am so sick of people who treats students from schools like mine as poor victims of a heinously unequal education system. And the people at schools like mine who whine endlessly that they could "do so much better" if only they went to a better school needs to reflect on their own attitudes first.
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As for what I would change --- fuck subject grouping restrictions.