By Alex Crowe
Education Minister Ben Carroll has ordered a full review into this year’s VCE exam bungle after Victoria’s curriculum authority unintentionally published test questions that gave thousands of students an advantage over others.
The Victorian government will also install an independent monitor to oversee exams in 2025, after a third consecutive year of blunders sparking questions over the Victorian Curriculum Assessment Authority’s (VCAA) capability.
Education Minister Ben Carroll.Credit: Chris Hopkins
“Students deserve better. It is clear to me that some students have been let down as a result of these errors, and that is completely unacceptable,” Carroll said.
A team of external reviewers will be appointed to examine all elements of the VCAA’s operating model, the minister’s office said on Thursday night.
The review is in response to the VCAA accidentally publishing test questions online and, after removing them, using similar questions in multiple exams despite Carroll’s direction not to.
The VCAA insisted that no exams were compromised, as the questions were changed after the error was discovered in October. However, material seen by The Age shows almost identical content was used on some exams.
The latest review follows the Bennett review that followed exams in 2022 and 2023 where mistakes were made, and some students were given wrong exams.
“The Labor government accepted all recommendations of the 2024 independent review chaired by Dr John Bennett, however, it is clear that there are ongoing issues relating to the production and distribution of exams,” Carroll’s office said.
The VCAA will undergo a full external review of its structure and operations as part of the review process.
The announcement comes after the minister dodged questions on Thursday about whether the VCAA should be reviewed after the latest gaffe.
Carroll said there had been change at the VCAA after last year – when mistakes were made on exams – including the appointment of a new chief executive and experts to look at how exams were prepared and written.
Instead, he blamed the bungle on human error and sought to reassure students.
“It’s still not an acceptable human error, and I will get to the bottom of this,” Carroll said on Thursday.
“There will not be any penalties, [students] will not be inadvertently affected in their marks or examinations. They should put their best foot forward.”
‘It is clear to me that some students have been let down as a result of these errors, and that is completely unacceptable.’
Education Minister Ben Carroll
The minister’s office said a person of “appropriate standing and expertise” would be appointed to start the review early next year.
Opposition education spokeswoman Jess Wilson had called for an independent review of the VCAA and the exam process as a whole.
She branded this year’s bungle worse than those the VCAA made in previous years and said the public had lost faith in the authority.
VCAA chief executive officer Kylie White has been on the defensive since the mistake was made public, insisting exams had not been compromised.
White has conceded “similar” questions were included in exams as the material was unintentionally published but said no student was disadvantaged.
The VCAA has been contacted for comment.
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