NGL, the boss of Victoria’s exams authority, has lost all her frizz and rage-quit. At least that’s likely how the Year 12 students would sum up the outcome of a blunder that has claimed the scalp of Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority (VCAA) Chief Executive Kylie White.
Each year, VCAA uploads VCE sample exam papers so students can familiarise themselves with test details. Still, it emerged last week that some had worked out how to reveal the actual questions, which were supposed to be hidden.
Initially, White insisted the issue did not compromise any final exams, but Education Minister Ben Carroll later confirmed that 56 out of 116 tests were affected by the error. The government had ordered an in-depth review of the Authority, and he accepted her resignation.
“I’m incredibly upset and angry,” Carroll told reporters. “I was given reassurances that the exam questions that had inadvertently been released and uploaded with the instruction cover sheets had been rewritten, and that has proven to be completely unsatisfactory.”
As a result, an existing grade-checking process will have to be used to assess all students who sat exams affected by the errors. It will be overseen by an independent advisory panel of experts chaired by Professor John Firth.
Papers will be reviewed to identify anomalies in how students responded to the questions, and marks will be adjusted if the assessors determine that anyone was provided with an unfair advantage.
The process could mean that some questions are ruled completely invalid, resulting in all students who sat the exam being awarded a full mark.
Carroll apologised to those affected.
“The last thing our Year 12 students need is additional stress and uncertainty from the administration of examinations,” he said.
“Today, we’re taking action and taking the right steps to ensure that no student is disadvantaged in the marking of the 2024 examinations.”
It’s not the first time Victoria’s exam-setting body has been found to have made errors. Last year, multiple typographical errors were found in general maths and chemistry exams, and six students received incorrect Chinese language exams.
In 2022, five questions from the maths exams also contained errors.
A report from an independent review, led by former New South Wales Education Standards Authority head John Bennett, was received in March this year and made six recommendations, including hiring academics with more suitable qualifications to develop exam papers and updating “the training of, and guidance to, the in-house editors and desktop publishers.”
The Victorian Academy of Teaching and Leadership Chief Executive Marcia Devlin has been named interim replacement as CEO of the VCAA, pending a permanent appointment.
