By ANEEKA SIMONIS
A PAKENHAM school’s decision to delay its Remembrance Day silence has been met with community outrage.
Pakenham Secondary College staged their minute’s reflection an hour after the designated time due to VCE exams.
The decision has been slammed by a band of locals, including Natasha on the Pakenham Gazette’s Facebook page who said “the exam times should have been set with respect to those who sacrificed their lives for us.”
Principal Ray Squires said the school “explained the meaning of Remembrance” to the students and did not “underplay” the significance of the silent period of reflection.
It was rumoured the school only stopped for half of the one-minute silence period which Mr Squires said “may have been caused by a technical hitch” but the school had intended to honour the full minute.
Pakenham RSL President Gary Elliott said he “was not aware” the school was delaying the minute’s silence on the day and believes time changes take away from the meaning of the service.
“We should all pause at 11am despite what’s happening. (The service) has much more meaning when it is done at a single point rather than all over the place,” he said.
In a public statement, Premier Denis Napthine said he was surprised students sitting their VCE exams on Tuesday 11 November were not allowed to participate in the minute’s silence.
“I was surprised that students who are undertaking exams were not being asked to put down their pens at a minute to 11am and having a minute’s silence and then picking up their pens and being given 10 to 15 minutes additional time at the end of the exam,” he said.
The VCE exam timetable was published in May this year and requested schools run the exams without interruption, a spokesperson from the Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority said.
“The VCAA encouraged schools to conduct observance of Remembrance Day with these students after the examination.”
The Gazette believes other schools across the Cardinia Shire delayed their minute of silence around the exam timetable or recess break.
