Arabic version: مدارس كوينزلاند تقلّص مواد الدراما للمرحلة الثانوية مع تراجع الالتحاق
According to ABC News, Queensland high schools are offering fewer senior drama subjects as enrolments decline. Queensland Curriculum and Assessment Authority data shows 276 schools offered drama or drama in practice in 2026, down from 318 schools in 2019 — a reduction of 42 schools since the introduction of ATAR.
Drama Queensland president Scott Andrews said the state faced an “enrolment crisis in drama”. Andrews, who teaches at a Brisbane private high school, said enrolments in Queensland drama had fallen by almost 40 per cent since 2019. He said students were leaving the subjects because of severe scaling and schools were discouraging choices that could affect their students’ ATAR results.
Andrews said that in 2025, students who scored 100 in drama lost about 15 points through scaling, falling to 85. He said schools promoted high ATAR outcomes as a marketing strategy, affecting the range of subjects students could take. National Advocates for Arts Education chair John Saunders agreed, describing schools as becoming “ATAR factories” and warning that the focus on scores could reduce the future supply of artists and arts workers.
Saunders said arts-related skills would be needed for the Olympics and the cultural Olympiad, including technical roles, production managers and producers. He said the National Advocates for Arts Education had sought a review of ATAR and subject scaling, while also calling on the QCAA to improve the drama syllabus. QTAC said intersubject scaling supported fair comparisons for tertiary admission and did not measure a subject’s value or merit. It encouraged students to select subjects based on their strengths, interests, aspirations and tertiary prerequisites.
A QCAA spokesperson said drama and arts subjects supported learning, creativity and self-expression, while its syllabuses were developed with teachers, academics and other experts. The authority said schools determine their senior offerings based on student demand, teacher availability and resources. QTAC said it would provide more information on its forthcoming ATAR study report when it was ready.
