The Purpose of Examinations
At our Year 12 Graduation Assembly, I spoke to our students about the examinations as a rite of passage and as an opportunity to put into practice the competencies (not only the knowledge) students need to flourish into the future:
Today’s assembly is about recognition and celebration.
We are here to recognise the myriad talents embodied by our Year 12 students - across all elements of learning - and we are celebrating the “almost” end of their schooling career.
I say “almost end” because there are still examinations around the corner. I want to stay with this for a moment, so bear with me.
“Examinations” is unlikely to be the word you want me focusing on right now. At the same time, it is part of your right of passage. They mark a formal closure to schooling for you and are a moment in time where you can choose to shine.
When we consider examinations, we see them as a transactional means to an end. The way to an ATAR, band 6s or IB diploma scores.
I would argue they are more than this.
Examinations are symbolic of your drive and ambition to be the best version of yourselves, and your tenacity and endurance. They are a measure of your academic knowledge, yes, but also of your resilience and capacity to “see things through to the end”.
How you tackle the upcoming examinations indicate not only what you know, but how you learn and your learning identity.
Your approach to examinations is also a way for you to exercise agency, a key ingredient for hope.
And agency and hope are essential as we witness AI move from predicting to creating to acting.
Listening to the news there appears much to be afraid of at a time when leaders in Big Tech are ringing alarm bells about the unbridled growth and development of agentic AI.
However, you have more control and power as the next generation of workers than many of us adults give you credit for.
This is the way Claudia Tattanelli, Chairperson of the Board of the Future Talent Council described you:
“The next generation may be vulnerable in this moment, but they are not passive. They are clear eyed and increasingly deliberate about the lives and careers they want to build.”
This is you, Year 12, you are not passive - you can be clear eyed and intentional in the actions you choose.
Staying with AI and the future of work for a moment longer, I want to share a comment from Lightcast, an organisation that undertakes research on global labour market trends.
They look at job listings around the world and analyse what they are seeing. This is one conclusion from their most recent research.
“What we see in the labour market data today is that skills are changing, jobs are being redesigned, and new career pathways are emerging. What we don’t see is widespread evidence of AI taking over work.”
This means that:
“The smartest thing on the planet today is a curious, smart, intellectually humble, empathetic person paired with an AI.”
Year 12, you can be the smartest thing on the planet. You are already curious, smart, intellectually humble and highly empathetic. A HVGS education has prepared you for your future, no matter what it holds, and you have the agency and discernment to embrace AI while not surrendering your human potential.
You have the capacity to be, as Emeritus Professor John Fischetti says, “the leaders who will move society forward” and “who create the conditions for people to use what is most human: judgement, creativity, empathy, courage, care and trust to build lives, communities, and institutions worthy of a future.”
You are ready for your future, not my past, or that of your parents. But now is also the time for you to exercise your agency.
Year 12, the next step is yours, so put into practice the learning habits essential for your future.
You will be more than your HSC, IB Diploma or IB Career Related Programme results. And, at the same time, we know that how hard you work through to the end of your schooling in November, makes a difference. It is a choice you make to lean into learning and create the future you want for yourselves. Staying the course through your examinations builds your lifelong learning habits and opens doors to a myriad of futures.
This is about exercising choice and agency in a way that is intentional, tenacious and resilient. In a world where AI agents abound, lean into what makes you most human and into lifelong learning. This will open doors.
Over the next few weeks, with examinations, you will be focusing on the urgency of the present. Your ability to embrace that urgency, stick with it, work hard to the end, embeds human capabilities essential for your future.
Year 12, your horizon is closer than it has ever been and, despite what you might hear, it is full of hope and possibilities.