Change is already underway.  Key research and policy directions from around the work support the need for student to thrive through, and the need to recognise in students, a broader and deeper range of skills and capabilities.

Our vision is for a world class education system that encourages and supports every student to be the very best they can be, no matter where they live or what kind of learning challenges they may face.  
The Alice Springs (Mparntwe) Education Declaration, Education Services Australia (Council of Australian Governments Education Council), December 2019. 

Young people will need a broad base of skills, values and knowledge to become successful lifelong learners. Our senior secondary schooling system must continue to adapt to fulfil this modern role.
Looking to the Future: Report of the Review of senior secondary pathways into work, further education and training, Education Services Australia (Council of Australian Governments Education Council), Professor Peter Shergold AC (Review Panel Chair), June 2020. 

How can we prepare students for jobs that have not yet been created, to tackle societal challenges that we can’t yet imagine, and to use technologies that have not yet been invented? How can we equip them to thrive in an interconnected world where they need to understand and appreciate different perspectives and world views, interact respectfully with others, and take responsible action towards sustainability and collective well-being? 
The future of education and skills Education 2030, OECD Future of Education and Skills 2030 Informal Working Group 

The new right drivers, by contrast, capture and propel the human spirit.
The right drivers for whole system success, Michael Fullan, Centre for Strategic Education, 2021

The Review recommendations are based on a 2018 view of what senior secondary rigour needs to look like for this generation of students and a new approach to teaching and learning that develops both deep discipline knowledge and relevant capabilities. 
SACE Stage 2 review [PDF 172KB], September 2018. 

Schools, educators, systems have been valiantly trying to move in the right direction. But as long as the markers of success reinforce old standards, the degree of change will continue to be limited and efforts counterproductive. 
Beyond ATAR – A proposal for change, Australian Learning Lecture Position Paper on transforming the transition from school to higher education, life and work, Megan O’Connell, Sandra Milligan and Tom Bentley, September 2019. 

SATAC appreciates that senior secondary qualifications like the SACE have important currency for young people and that the ATAR dominates as the main metric of student success. Our ambition is that the capabilities assessment data will provide additional metrics to guide different conversations about student achievement and success. 
Stuart Mosman, Chief Executive, SATAC (SA Tertiary Admissions Centre), September 2022. 

Only 30 per cent of first-year students are offered a university place based on their ATAR, the rest gain entry based on a range of alternatives such as principals’ recommendations, portfolios and being mature age. 
Learner profiles prove that ATAR is not everything, Julie Hare, Education editor, Australian Financial Review, July 2021 

Students need to leave school with a comprehensive snapshot of their abilities and capabilities, not just a mark to define their future. 
What a Jobs Summit ‘win’ would look like, Jennifer Westacott, Chief Executive of the Business Council of Australia, published in The Australian Financial Review, August 2022.

The common themes emerging in these official reports and expert opinions and in the views of young people, is that schooling in Australia does not reliably deliver or recognise what young people need if they are to thrive and contribute to a healthy economy and society. 
Recognition of learning success for all, Sandra Milligan, Rebekah Luo, Toshiko Kamei, Suzanne Rice and Thida Kheang for Learning Creates Australia, 2020.