Tasmania’s education regulator apologises for exam paper errors

ABC NEWS (Australia)

Tasmania's education regulator has apologised to senior students after several errors in this year's exams created confusion and concern. "TASC" says the errors won't impact students' results. But the education union says one of the mistakes is so significant it makes fair assessment unviable.

Transcript

00:00Thousands of Year 11 and 12 students have been taking their Tasmanian Certificate of

00:07Education exams, but some of the tests have contained errors.

00:11Parents and students and teachers are angry, and we have every right to be angry, and they

00:17have no way of fixing this problem.

00:19At least four mistakes have been reported so far, including a misspelling in the physical

00:24sciences exam and the wrong term in the legal studies test, but the education union says

00:31the main problem was with biology.

00:34This error in the biology exam has been portrayed as not a big error, it is a huge error.

00:42It's essentially the exam paper's been written off.

00:46Students were supposed to receive a six page information sheet alongside the biology exam.

00:52Instead they were given an 18 page information sheet.

00:56When the error was eventually noticed, the union says it wasn't resolved in a consistent way,

01:02and some students were disadvantaged.

01:04It's a total disaster, and it's not salvageable.

01:10In a statement the education regulator Tasks said, we sincerely apologise to the students

01:15who sat the affected exams and their families and their teachers.

01:20The latest bungle comes after 11 errors were found in last year's exams, which triggered

01:26an independent review that identified understaffing at Tasks as a contributing factor.

01:33This happens every year, this is Groundhog Day for us.

01:36The independent review made 34 recommendations to improve the exam development process.

01:42Tasks says work is underway on 16 of them, with three already completed.

01:47It's also planning to employ three additional staff.

01:51In the meantime, Tasks is assuring students that the exam errors won't negatively impact

01:57their results.

01:58Certainly I've been advised that this hasn't affected results for students.

02:04Tasks says it remains committed to reliable assessments that support student outcomes.

02:09Tasks says it remains effective.

02:18Tasks says a social Football Accent

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