Ms Annette Honan:

The assessment piece has been taken away from the State Examinations Commission so they no longer have to sit an exam. However, they continue to be assessed in the subject, which is really important. The assessment is now much more enabling and more teacher and student-friendly and student-led. The students will complete a project.

If the Senator looks at Curriculum Online there are some fantastic examples of the types of work that students are doing as part of their assessments with the new course. There are projects where students have identified a topic of interest to themselves. It could be Brexit, climate change or fast fashion. There are wonderful projects there and they are very much student driven. In many ways the assessment practice is improving because of the lack of the examination in June where there are the predictable questions that the student can go in and answer in two hours. I am not sure that in supporting better teaching and learning, an examination is necessarily a good thing.