Parents of those students who have just sat the VCE exams must be heaving a sigh of relief, that is unless your child’s exam paper had errors.
And this time there were too many, which requires an independent review to stop the repeat in the years ahead.
At least eight errors across four separate exams have been confirmed to date, in addition to the failure to reissue a Chinese language exam which was incorrectly handed to students ten days ago and reportedly had its contents published online.
Despite that, the question paper was not ordered to be changed.
While the government is doing what most government tend to do, order an investigation internally, thankfully, the Opposition is calling for an independent review of what went wrong.
You can only imagine the plight of those students doing VCE Chinese language.
The least the Allan Government can do is to commit to an independent review into the error plagued VCE exams which have made an already difficult period only harder for Victorian students.
According to a statement released by the state Opposition, the Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority (VCAA) CEO Mr Stephen Gneil welcomes such an idea.
When asked about the need for the need for an independent, impartial and external review of this years VCE exams, Mr Gneil said:
“I think that’s a great idea…We don’t want to just look internally here, we do want some fresh eyes on this.”
The Minister for Education Ben Carroll has to date only requested an internal review be conducted by the Department of Education and the VCAA themselves.
Shadow Minister for Education, Jess Wilson, said: “It is unacceptable that the Minister is refusing to commission an independent review of a VCE exam period that has been riddled with mistakes, errors and mismanagement.
Students, school communities and families were led to believe an independent review of these errors would occur but now the government seems to be backflipping, in an inexplicable effort not to get to the truth.
“Not only has confidence in our education system been undermined by the exam errors, a review conducted by the same people responsible for these mistakes will not get to the bottom or what went wrong, or fix the system for future years,” Ms Wilson added.
“Students who have been put through added stress at an already challenging time deserve better and Minister Carroll must ensure a truly independent review is conducted so that improvements can be made before the 2024 VCE exams period., Ms Wilson demanded.