Well, well, well - back in 1996, as a father of a HSC student in a country high school, I wrote to the NSW Education Department regarding my child’s lower than expected HSC mark which determined university acceptance.
A new system had been incorporated into the HSC, that for the uninitiated, in my simple terms, the entire Year 12 results of each school ultimately determined each HSC student’s tertiary mark.
What this meant was that Country High Schools were in effect at a disadvantage where many Year 12 students found the HSC to be no more import than to complete high school before moving into the local force.
In this new system, those students bought the entire school’s tertiary mark down so that very good student’s would likewise have their mark’s lowered.
The Department wrote back with gobbly-gook, explaining the system and how good it was … blah, blah, blah. That HSC student’s mark was so low – it means no offers were made for Law in city universities nearby but accepted by UNE which was a 15 hour drive from Moruya of the NSW south coast.
That HSC student accepted the UNE offer, finished with First Class Hon in Law and equally so at the post graduation 6 month School of Law, had developed a strong work ethic and has proven to be a very highly respected lawyer.
Now the prestige school are hit
The story is now reversed. Major Sydney High School Principals are complaining that with Universities offering pre-HSC offers to top students, the effect will be that those students will inevitably drag the chain at the HSC.
This will bring down the school’s tertiary mark and affect every other student’s future prospects with a lower HSC mark.
Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha
Told you so …..
The very same issue Country High Schools in 1996 and continued is now hitting the prestigious Sydney high schools and it’s there for all to see – in print.
Those parents paying $25,000 per student to get into a prestigious high school are in effect, wasting their money, as some of their students will get offers to university well before the HSC – so who gives ‘a stuff’ then. Human nature takes over.
It does matter
Money talks and Country High Schools are not in that league as the Sydney prestigious high schools where it costs a ‘nice little earner’ to get in your kid!
My guess, as money talks, a special deal will be made ‘under the table’ (as it were)_ so that those students at such prestigious schools will not be effected - doesn’t matter about the Country High Schools. It’s pathetic.
There are a host of Scriptures about weights and scales of justice. In my years as an industrial chaplain the term ‘structural violence’ was a common one. Where a manager changed the ‘cleaner’ times without consultation which meant 50% of the cleaning staff missed the last train home. Hundreds of similar examples.
This is another one.
Dr Mark Tronson is a Baptist minister (retired) who served as the Australian cricket team chaplain for 17 years (2000 ret) and established Life After Cricket in 2001. He was recognised by the Olympic Ministry Medal in 2009 presented by Carl Lewis Olympian of the Century. He mentors young writers and has written 24 books, and enjoys writing. He is married to Delma, with four adult children and grand-children. Dr Tronson writes a daily article for Christian Today Australia (since 2008) and in November 2016 established Christian Today New Zealand. Dr Mark Tronson’s Press Service International in 2019 was awarded the Australasian Religious Press Association’s premier award, The Gutenberg.
Mark Tronson's archive of articles can be viewed at http://www.pressserviceinternational.org/mark-tronson.html