A new report has confirmed that systemic failings and under-funding stretching back half a decade under the Victorian Labor Government has repeatedly denied students the fair and accurate VCE assessments they deserve.
Released today, Stage 2 of the Organisational Review of the Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority (VCAA) has confirmed repeated VCE exam errors have resulted from significant mis-management over the past five years, including failings of leadership, governance, culture, resourcing and technology roll-out.
Worse still, today's report warns the actions needed to address these failings will take at least three years to implement - leaving tens of thousands of future VCE students exposed to similar errors in the future.
The Stage 2 Review found the VCAA was operating with a culture of blame and unacceptably weak risk management, lacked basic organisational structures, and had cycled through seven CEOs in just five years.
It revealed the VCAA has been running a structural deficit, with outdated technology and poor governance that lacks oversight from the Minister for Education.
Crucially, the report identifies that the Labor Government has not materially reviewed the VCAA's base funding in seven years, forcing the Department of Education to "top up the budget when needed", with annual top-ups ranging from $5 million to $55 million. This ad-hoc approach left core systems and capability underfunded and unstable.
The report also confirmed that the VCAA repeatedly failed to act on recommendations of earlier reviews, leading to errors that undermined confidence in the 2022 and 2023 Mathematics and Chemistry exams, and the disastrous 2024 exam period where 65 out of 116 exam papers were compromised.
Shadow Minister for Education, Jess Wilson, said: "This report lays bare the scale of Labor's failure on the VCE. For five years, Labor has ignored warnings, overseen repeated blunders and left students to pay the price.
"Students preparing for their final exams should be focused on their studies, not worrying about whether the paper in front of them is riddled with errors or leaked online.
"The Labor Government did not properly fund the authority charged with ensuring students could fairly sit their exams, and it looked the other way as the body fell into disrepair.
"Instead of acting decisively, the Education Minister, Ben Carroll, has lurched from crisis to crisis - sacking boards, blaming staff and scrambling for short-term fixes, while refusing to confront the deep cultural and governance failures identified in this report - and previous reports."
"It is unacceptable that today's report warns it will take at least three years before the VCAA is fit for purpose. That means tens of thousands of Victorian students will sit their VCE exams knowing Labor's failures still hang over them."
"The Victorian Liberals and Nationals will restore confidence in the VCE by ensuring accountability, putting students first, securing sustainable funding for core systems, and delivering the reforms Labor has ignored for too long."
