‘Zero for plagiarism’: NSW Education Standards Authority busted copying sections of annual reports

Large chunks of a report produced by the NSW bureaucrats who are tasked with stopping plagarism in the HSC have been copied from the previous year.

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The state authority charged with policing student plagiarism for the Higher School Certificate has copied and pasted swaths of its annual report from the previous year.

Entire paragraphs were reproduced verbatim in the report — designed to inform the public about how the $139 million-a-year NSW Education Standards Authority has worked to boost education outcomes for the state’s schoolchildren.

In one example, the organisation’s update on its work in response to the minister’s statement of expectation is identical to the update provided from the previous year.

The report, which was released in October 2019, said: “Random inspections in 2018 should include a focus on the teaching of Stage 6 and preparation of students for the HSC.”

It was identical to the text used in the previous year’s ­report.

Officials whose job it is to stop plagarism in the HSC have been busted copying their own reports. Picture: Jonathan Ng

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But the organisation has defended its liberal use of copying and pasting in its annual reports, claiming that the work it conducted each year was “similar”.

“Much of the work NESA undertakes annually is similar,” a spokeswoman said. “The work on this particular project has progressed, which is why the report reflected this.”

In another case, the Education Standards Authority said it had undertaken a review of HSC disability provisions in the 2017-18 reporting year.

However the 2018-19 report detailed an identical review, which also appears to be a copy.

Education Minister Sarah Mitchell said she was satisfied with the work the organisation was doing.

But her parliamentary colleague, Shooters and Fishers MP Mark Banasiak, on Sunday said: “One has to question, does the copying and pasting indicate incompetence in not being able to complete reviews and tasks, meaning very little progress has been made over three years?

“Alternatively has someone been lazy and just copied huge chunks of information without proofreading, hoping people won’t pick up on it.

“This supports the sentiment I am hearing a lot that the department has grown so big and cumbersome it cannot perform authentic compliance on itself, its schools or its staff.”

Education Minister Sarah Mitchell says she is happy with the job of the staff. Picture: Richard Dobson

One Nation MP Mark Latham said there was little point having accountability measures, such as annual reports for large government agencies, if they were simply reprints.

“It makes a mockery of the process if you‘re just repeating the same thing year after year without any sign of actual results,” he said.

“A lot of this work is substandard. This is not an annual report, it is just a copy — that is not good enough. It doesn’t meet the requirements of annual reporting.”

Originally published as ‘Zero for plagiarism’: NSW Education Standards Authority busted copying sections of annual reports