The Year 12 OP Score. For some it’s seen as the number that will lead them on to a shiny career in law or medicine (or so their parents hope). For others, it’s a dismal marker of a senior year spent socialising too much, and studying too little.
And while those of us beyond that hallowed ‘senior year’ are now very aware that our OP score was not the ‘be all and end all’ (despite what the career counsellor said), that number – and the Queensland Core Skills test – was a significant part of our Queensland high school experience.
Until now.
Education experts are calling for an overhaul of the Queensland ranking system, to bring us in line with the rest of the country. Other states and territories are now operating under the Australian Tertiary Admission Rank, which assigns each student a percentage score, to compare positions in relation to others.
Queensland’s Overall Position system, where students are ranked on a scale of one to 25, has been described as ‘outdated’ and in need of an overhaul.
Education Queensland has hinted that they will look at the current ranking system and consider possible changes, but are unlikely to make any big decisions in the near future.
Queensland Teachers’ Union president, Kevin Bates, says he supports a move to bring Queensland in line with the rest of the country.
“We’re not talking about a system that has failed, but rather, a system that probably needs to be updated in order to recognise some of the changes in education that have occurred over the past 20 years.”
Listen to our full chat with Kevin Bates here:
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