Wednesday, 15 November 2023

VCE exams

Jess WILSON (Kew) (19:09): (445) My adjournment is for the Minister for Education. The action I am seeking is that he commission a comprehensive and independent investigation of the 2023 VCE exam process conducted by the Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority (VCAA).

We have seen multiple errors made during the 2023 VCE exam period, which has caused significant distress for many year 12 students across the state and could potentially compromise the accuracy of VCE assessments. First, multiple mistakes have been identified in the exams for specialist maths, general maths and chemistry. A total of eight errors have been identified across four separate exam papers, forcing an apology by the VCAA. Secondly, last week at least six students sitting the Chinese second language advanced exam were provided with the wrong exam paper, a completely different paper that was scheduled to be sat 10 days later – this afternoon in fact. Subsequently that paper was leaked online, meaning some of the students sitting the Chinese second language exam today may have had access to the paper and gained an unfair advantage. The VCAA knew the Chinese second language exam had been compromised but failed to take any meaningful action. In fact the only action the VCAA did take was to make students sign confidentiality agreements, which clearly did not prevent the leaking of the paper.

Then today the students sitting the Chinese second language exam this afternoon, students who have already had their exam compromised, were forced to cross out an entire question in the exam and write on another topic instead. This is simply unacceptable. I share the dismay of many teachers and students and parents at this approach. It appears the VCAA did not have back-up exams prepared to be used in a scenario where an assessment has been compromised. Despite the minister himself admitting this was a stuff-up, he did not instruct the VCAA to reissue the exam.

VCE exams are stressful enough without the VCAA adding failures to students’ workloads. That is why I support the students who are now calling on the VCAA to publish a full list of this year’s mistakes, overhaul its exam processes and have experts write and check every test paper. Their petition has gained almost 200 signatures within 48 hours. In the words of these students:

These errors have consequences – they decide whether students can get into the university course they want.

For Victoria to be taken credibly as the Education State, this is one of the things the government just cannot drag its feet on. It must be fixed properly by the next exam cycle. Our VCE students devote hours of their time to study for these exams. When we are examining students and asking them to perform at their very best, it is not too much to ask that the exam itself is drafted to the same standard we are asking of students. I note the minister has asked the VCAA to review the process that has led to these mistakes, but this is an internal review. We need an independent investigation of the 2023 exam process to understand how these mistakes were made and to make sure that any recommendations to improve for the 2024 exam period are well understood. Our teachers and students deserve this before the next exam period.