English class to be made compulsory for Canberra students
Canberra students in years 11 and 12 will be forced to study English and will be urged to study maths from next year as part of a reworking of senior study requirements.
The ACT Government has flagged the changes after receiving the results of a review of the ACT Year 12 Certificate by the ACT Board of Senior Secondary Studies (BSSS).
It made 10 recommendations including that the breadth and depth of the Year 12 Certificate be expanded, that all students complete a course from the English Course Area and that a mathematics course be strongly recommended.
The ACT is the last Australian jurisdiction to mandate the study of English for senior students.
It is the first review of the ACT Year 12 Certificate in 30 years and has also recommended more regular five-yearly reviews of the certificate.
Education Minister Joy Burch said the ACT Government would adopt all the report's recommendations.
"It looked at other jurisdictions and the course requirements for their year 12 certificates and also I think reflected employer interests and expectations and indeed community expectations," she said.
Ms Burch said when she ordered the review, she was surprised to learn that English was not yet compulsory for senior students.
She said she was comfortable that maths would not be made compulsory.
"Maths was never as clear as the argument to make English compulsory," she said.
"But we will come back to this in at least five years time, if not before, and I think the strong recommendation from the BSSS will encourage colleges to increase the offerings for Maths.
"I'm very comfortable with all the recommendations in this report."
Last year, of the 4,404 ACT students who attained a Year 12 Certificate, 82 did not complete an English course.
