Ben Carroll has ordered a review to fix problems for 2025 but has offered no clarity about his own role in the fiasco

Education Minister Ben Carroll and Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority staff are set to be grilled in state parliament as the opposition pushes for the exam leaks to be referred to the Ombudsman.

Political pressure is intensifying on Education Minister Ben Carroll as more VCE exams with leaked questions are due to be sat by students this week.

Frustrated and angry students are still no closer to knowing exactly what is going to happen with the exams that have been corrupted by leaked questions being accessible online before the exam.

The 19 exams yet to be sat include Food Studies, Systems Engineering and Music Contemporary Performance. Leaked questions for these subjects have been shared online, and are still available through the Wayback Machine archive website.

There are also claims that the exam paper for Chinese Second Language was leaked by a tuition company, and generous students are sharing it online – as one said, “making it fair for everyone”.

Education Minister Ben Carroll is facing pressure over the VCE exams scandal. Picture: Ian Currie

At this point, Mr Carroll has ordered a review to fix problems for 2025 but has offered no clarity about his own role in the fiasco, and no detail about what is going to happen with the 2024 exam marking.

Next week education bureaucrats from the Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority will be quizzed in state parliament, and the opposition will move a motion to refer the exam leaks to the Ombudsman.

However, the chief executive of the VCAA Kylie White remains in her post, despite repeated calls for her to resign, not just for the leaks but for continuing to deny the fiasco would have an impact on exam papers despite evidence to the contrary.

Meanwhile, irate students are creating memes and spoof exams, including one subject called “Corruption” that includes a question reading: “Explain how VCAA’s gross negligence over the past three years has negatively impacted student outcomes” and asks students to “state the intelligence quotient of the front-cover exam publishers in 2024”.

There is also a fake examiners’ report that concludes that “the art of crafting poor exams is as poor as possible”.

A spokesman for the VCAA said students “deserve better”.

“It is clear some students have been let down as a result of these errors and that is completely unacceptable,” he said.

“The VCAA are working to address the issues caused by the early publication of some examination questions.

“We are working to ensure every student who has taken their VCE exams is assessed fairly.”

Opposition education spokeswoman Jess Wilson said: “The 2024 VCE exam period is in disarray and the Minister and Allan Labor government are nowhere to be seen.

“Three things must immediately happen. First, accountability: the VCAA CEO must be stood down.

“Second, clarity: the Minister needs to outline how no student will be at a disadvantage when it comes to their final study score.

Third, responsibility: the Ombudsman must be brought in to conduct a comprehensive and truly independent investigation into this debacle.”

Although the Herald Sun believes just about every single cover sheet was corrupted and contained leaked data from the actual exam, not all of that material has ended up in the final exams sat by students.

But dozens of the exams have questions, case studies or prompts lifted straight from the leaked material and barely changed, giving those who accessed them a huge advantage.