More than 10,000 people have signed an online petition calling for the ATAR and year 11 and 12 exams to be scrapped this year as students struggle with disruption caused by the coronavirus outbreak.

Former Templestowe College principal Peter Hutton has petitioned for the ATAR to be scrapped this year. Credit:Eddie Jim

The petition was started by former Templestowe College principal Peter Hutton, who says it is unfair to rank students against each other during the COVID-19 crisis.

“What better time to kill the ATAR off than now, when an already demonstrably inequitable system is made even more so due to disruption, remote schooling and inequality of technology provision in online learning,” he writes in the change.org petition, which had almost 10,300 signatures by 9pm on Monday.

Among the signatories to the petition is Zac Jeffries, the director of teaching and learning at Bayview College, an independent school in Portland, south-western Victoria.