Aayushi Khillan says her near-perfect ATAR wasn’t the reason that she got the position as the student representative on the board of the Victorian Curriculum Assessment Authority.
“It was more so the fact that my leadership skills and my understanding of student involvement in advocacy,” the 19-year-old Melbourne University student told SBS Punjabi. “I think the ATAR is just a bit of a bonus, to be honest.”
Ms Khillan completed her VCE last year at the select-entry Mac. Robertson Girls’ High School with an ATAR of 99.90 and received the Melbourne University chancellor’s scholarship to study biomedicine.
This month, she’s joining VCAA – the body that advises on school curriculum and assessment for school students in Victoria – for three years. And as a board member, she’s hoping to be able to bring in more “current issues” in the curriculum.
“Like the dangers of technology, more issues related to our progressive society - if we can address them in the curriculum, for example, bringing out texts in English that have those themes of current global issues, like climate change, it’d help our students when they are in Uni and growing up in this new world- that’s the first thing I want to bring in,” she said.
She says the issue of climate change should be included in the school curriculum.
Because [climate change] is so political that in order to be politically correct, it’s removed from the curriculum. It’s important to allow for student discussion so that they can make their own opinion on how we can run the world in the future.
Ms Khillan who was part of the Victorian Student Representative Council in 2017-18, says she’s someone who has an “all-round understanding of what education”.
Also on her list of issues to be addressed are mental health and disparity of access to education between different communities.
“Sometimes you don’t think about the mental impact of the studies on students and how we can perhaps help them. Those kinds of things I’d like to bring on the table more.”
The Victorian Minister for Education, James Merlino said with this appointment, the government had put the student voice and the perspectives of young people at the heart of how schools are run.
This appointment of Aayushi Khillan to the VCAA Board shows that the views of students are central to the decisions we make about what is taught in our classrooms,” Mr Merlino said.
Despite being a volunteer tutor and her medical studies, Ms Khillan says she’s more excited than stressed about her new role.
“I know it’s a lot of work and that’s why it’s a fully paid position. It’ll need a bit of time management. It’s not too bad.”
