PLEASE ONLY SIGN THIS IF YOU'RE A VCE STUDENT!

VCE Exams are coming up in 2 weeks as coronavirus cases are on the steady rise. As the economy begins to open, we will see a major increase in cases with, with the likelihood of more school closures growing evermore imminent. Already, hundreds of students have gotten the virus, threatening the balance of the system.

Through this entire ordeal, students have been entirely ignored. This isn't the first petition to have been created on this issue, there were others that garnered thousands signatures without even an acknowledgement by the government. They have not listened to us, even though we were the group that have been drastically affected. This is our chance to be heard, for our voices to finally be listened to.

It is neither fair nor safe for exams to continue. The GAT caused the closure of at least 10 schools with more to come. Thousands of students, including me, have been forced to return to online learning in our final weeks of Year 12, thus depriving us of much needed face-to-face communication with our teachers. The government expects us to act as if this is a normal year of learning when half of the year we haven't been at school. If they did care about us, as they've so wildly proclaimed, there would've been concessions given to us all like last year. Alas, nothing.

Most of us don't live alone either, so even if we are fully vaccinated, there's still the possibility of spreading it to the ones we love, our parents, our siblings, our friends, our grandparents.

This isn't some wild suggestion, this actually happened in the UK. Their final scores also weren't derived from the GAT, but from their own teachers, which is what we should be aiming for as the GAT is highly unfair in its own nature.

This is not about me or you, it is about everyone. We have to prioritise safety and fairness within the VCE system and the only way to do that is to cancel exams.

Thank you for reading, and please consider signing this petition.