Victorian Education Minister Ben Carroll has ordered a full review into this year’s VCE exam bungle after the state’s curriculum authority unintentionally published test questions that gave thousands of students an advantage. Source: The Age.
The Victorian Government will also install an independent monitor to oversee exams in 2025, after a third consecutive year of blunders sparking questions over the Victorian Curriculum Assessment Authority’s (VCAA) capability.
“Students deserve better. It is clear to me that some students have been let down as a result of these errors, and that is completely unacceptable,” Mr Carroll said.
A team of external reviewers will be appointed to examine all elements of the VCAA’s operating model, the minister’s office said last night.
The review is in response to the VCAA accidentally publishing test questions online and, after removing them, using similar questions in multiple exams despite Mr Carroll’s direction not to.
The VCAA insisted that no exams were compromised, as the questions were changed after the error was discovered in October. However, material seen by The Age shows almost identical content was used on some exams.
The latest review follows an independent review chaired by John Bennett that followed exams in 2022 and 2023 where mistakes were made, and some students were given wrong exams.
The VCAA will undergo a full external review of its structure and operations as part of the review process.
Mr Carroll blamed the bungle on human error and sought to reassure students.
“There will not be any penalties, [students] will not be inadvertently affected in their marks or examinations. They should put their best foot forward,” Mr Carroll said.
FULL STORY
Minister orders inquiry into VCE exam fiasco that advantaged thousands of students (By Alex Crowe, The Age)
