VCAA board axed as review into school exam scandal released

The board of the Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority will be dismissed as the Allan government seeks to rebuild public confidence in the scandal-plagued agency.

The board of the Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority will be dismissed as the Allan government seeks to rebuild public confidence in the scandal-plagued agency.

Deputy Premier and Education Minister Ben Carroll will on Tuesday release the root-and-branch review into the VCAA, which he ordered in the wake of the exam scandal.

In November last year the Herald Sun revealed the VCAA had accidentally leaked its own exam papers on its website, with the cheat sheet fiasco affecting 65 out of 74 common exams sat by thousands of students.

The damaging incident came after two years of mistakes in VCE maths and other subject exams, prompting a high-level review by Professor John Bennett.

Former VCAA CEO Kylie White was also forced to resign as a result of the leaks and her handling of the fallout.

Now, the Herald Sun can reveal that the government is set to dismiss the board as part of its response to the review.

How the Herald Sun broke the VCE exam scandal story.

Among the myriad of damaging disclosures is the revelation that 100 people had a mere two days to rewrite the exams after the leaked information on the cover sheets was discovered.

But the report states that the instructions to staff were inconsistent and insufficient.

Mr Carroll said the government would accept all the recommendations of the first stage of the review.

This will include appointing Andrew Smith as the new VCAA boss from June 1.

Mr Smith is currently the CEO of the Education Services Australia.

An interim Board has also be appointed to oversee the agency for the rest of 2025.

It will include Department of Education acting secretary Tony Bates, Victorian Catholic Education Authority CEO Elizabeth Labone and Independent Schools Victoria boss Rachel Holthouse.

One VCE maths teacher, who was not authorised to speak publicly on the matter, said the report was “incredibly damning of the VCAA”.

“IT confirms what we all knew - that the VCAA has an absolute disaster and a ticking time bomb,” he said.

He welcomed the recommendations but said the report “wallpapered over the VCAA’s history, and the fact that it had to be dragged kicking and screaming to face these issues”.

Meanwhile, one year 12 coordinator from a leading state secondary college described the VCAA report as “risk-management jargon”.

He said it was “strange” that there will no longer be sample exam covers available for students and teachers.

“I assume they will still create a sample exam when the study designs change,” he said. “The whole point of developing them was accessibility of the font.”

Mr Carroll said the government would accept the review’s recommendations. Picture: Ian Currie

Mr Carroll said on Tuesday he was working to immediately implement the changes needed to restore confidence in the VCAA.

“These changes, along with the leadership of new CEO Andrew Smith, are laying the foundations for a much stronger and more accountable VCAA, so students, families and schools can have full confidence in VCE exams going forward,” he said.

Going forward, students will not be able to access exam cover sheets.

Mr Carroll said it was clear that the “status quo of the VCAA will no longer cut it”.

“We know VCE is like the AFL Grand Final for students,” he said.

“It’s a big thing and it’s an important thing to get right. Unfortunately the VCAA has not got it right on more than one occasion.”

Mr Carroll said he was “disappointed” in the former VCAA board, revealing he met with them after a series of errors in the 2023 exam period and warned there could be no errors in the 2024 exams.

He said the report found there was a “complete lack of oversight from the board” when it came to the handling of exams.

Several exam blunders took place last year as senior students prepared to take their final exams. Picture: Getty Images

“When this crisis did emerge, there was a lack of crisis management planning,” he said.

Opposition education spokeswoman Jess Wilson said in response on Tuesday the “so-called review” contained nothing to ensure exam blunders didn’t occur again.

“After initially trying to cover up the 2024 VCE exam debacle, the Minister for Education has deliberately set up this limited review to avoid accountability,” she said.

“Students sitting the 2025 VCE exams should be rightly concerned that Minister Carroll is more concerned about protecting his job than ensuring the integrity of their exams.

“Students deserve better. Only a truly independent and comprehensive investigation into the VCAA as proposed by the Liberals and Nationals will restore integrity to VCE assessments.”

Former senior government bureaucrat Yehudi Blacher, who was appointed to prepare a two-phase review into the 2024 bungle, said the processes that had now been implemented should have already been in place years ago.

“The problem with this, and it’s a real problem, is there wasn’t sufficient recognition from the top down, the Board down, about how important VCE is to the Victorian community,” he said.

“The consequences that flow from that are quite considerable.”

Asked if he could guarantee there wouldn’t be a repeat of last year’s errors, Mr Blacher said: “No one can guarantee anything. All I can say is the likelihood of issues this year are as diminished as they can possibly be.”