BackThe Ministry of Education will apologize to students and compensate any students who were financially harmed by the issuance of incorrect provincial exam results in 2019 as a result of a B.C. Ombudsperson investigation.
In a report released today, Course Correction: The Ministry of Education 2019 Provincial Exam Errors, the Ombudsperson finds the ministry’s communication with students and their families was misleading, and in some cases inaccurate. The ministry posted more than 18,000 incorrect exam scores roughly half of which were higher than they should have been with the other half lower than they should have been.
The report makes six recommendations all of which have been accepted by the ministry, including to:
- Establish an enhanced quality assurance process for the review and approval of provincial assessment results before they are released to post-secondary institutions
- Establish a communications protocol so that a ministry official certifies that information released to the public is accurate and not misleading
- Apologize to all students who were impacted by the errors and compensate any student who was financially harmed.
“I am encouraged that the ministry has accepted our recommendations and has committed to do the necessary work that will lead to full implementation including formally apologizing to students affected and compensating anyone financially impacted. Young people at a critical juncture of their lives deserve nothing less,” said Chalke adding his office will be monitoring the recommendations contained in the report and will report publicly on the ministry’s implementation.
Source: Ombudsperson of British Columbia
