Education ministry to pay, apologize to students impacted by 2019 provincial exam mistake

VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) — Students impacted by a mistake within B.C.’s Ministry of Education are about to get some financial compensation and an apology.

A report by the province’s ombudsperson says the ministry will compensate and apologize to those who were affected when incorrect provincial exam marks posted in 2019. The report found the ministry posted more than 18,000 incorrect exam scores and about half of those were higher than they should have been with the other half being lower.

“Our findings reveal a number of shortcomings in a system that young people were relying on at one of the key points of their lives,” says Ombudsperson Jay Chalke. “A rushed and inadequate quality assurance process led to the errors. What followed was poor communication with students, families, and post-secondary institutions at a time when clarity was needed.”

“Misleading and in some cases inaccurate.”
That’s how report by BC’s ombudsperson describes Ministry of Education’s mishandling of problems leading to 18,000 provincial exam scores being wrong last year.
Students who suffered financial losses to be compensated. #bcpoli @NEWS1130 https://t.co/6DoF8lH7Sy

— Marcella Bernardo (@Bernardo1130) August 20, 2020

How the errors were made and subsequently responded to by the ministry were examined in the report. It found the tabulation processes were rushed and discrepancies were not immediately addressed by the ministry. Even though the ministry, staff, students, and post-secondary institutions were aware of the problem, the wrong results still went out, showing the gaps in the ministry’s quality assurance process, according to the report.

More than 100,000 potentially incorrect transcripts went to post-secondary institutions before any errors were fixed.

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Following the mistakes, the investigation found “a series of unclear, inaccurate and misleading statements” when over several days the ministry was slow to inform the public “of the nature and scope of the tabulation errors and gave overly broad assurances that the situation was fully in hand.” This includes a ministry release going out suggesting colleges and universities in North America had been told students would not be affected, when really the only one that had been given that assurance was UBC.

“Ministry staff worked quickly and diligently to correct the tabulation errors and that was positive, but when government made a mistake, good public administration demands more,” says Chalke. “Not only does the technical error need to be fixed but the potential impact on people needs to be addressed. When government makes a mistake, it needs to put things right.”

Chalke notes staff worked quickly to make corrections, but he made six recommendations in the report, which have been accepted by the ministry. This including an improved quality assurance process that will review and approve provincial exams before they go to post-secondary institutions, establish a communication protocol where a ministry official certifies the information released to the public so it is accurate, and apologize to those impacted.

Chalke says he’s encouraged the ministry accepted the recommendations.

“Young people at a critical juncture of their lives deserve nothing less,” he says, adding his office will keeping an eye on the recommendations and keeping the public informed along the way.

In a statement, the Ministry of Education thanks the ombudsperson for the recommendations.

“We know this situation was stressful for students and their parents… Ministry staff worked around the clock to resolve this issue to try make sure no students were negatively impacted. We’ve learned from this and taken steps to ensure it doesn’t happen again.” @Rob_Fleming

— Marcella Bernardo (@Bernardo1130) August 20, 2020

“We know that this situation was stressful for students and their parents when it happened,” it says. “Ministry staff worked around the clock to resolve this issue to try make sure no students were negatively impacted. We’ve learned from this and taken steps to ensure it doesn’t happen again.”

-With files from Marcella Bernardo