B.C. Grade 12 students whose final marks were botched to receive compensation

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The B.C. Ministry of Education will financially compensate Grade 12 students affected last year when more than 18,000 incorrect exam scores were released.

Roughly half the exam scores were higher than they should have been and the other half lower, causing chaos for thousands of students, many intent on securing admission to postsecondary education.

According to a report by B.C. ombudsperson Jay Chalke, more than 100,000 potentially incorrect transcripts were obtained by postsecondary institutions and others before the marks were corrected.

Mr. Chalke’s report, released Thursday, includes a recommendation the ministry establish a compensation program by Dec. 31 for students affected by the errors in exam tabulation – a first in the 30 years that the system has been in place.

The ombudsperson said the compensation initiative should provide financial payments for individuals who can demonstrate financial loss incurred from exam tabulation errors, and not be limited to students whose grades were adjusted up or down.

“It’s an important principle at stake. The important principle is the thing we teach children in school, which is when you make a mistake, you stand up and fess up and make it right,” he said in an interview.

“Even if there is one [student], it’s the appropriate principle to stand up for, that when government makes a mistake that harms a young person, they should make it right. To the extent that the person is out financially, that is the nature of the harm.”

In a letter included with the report, D. Scott MacDonald, the deputy education minister, said the ministry will implement the compensation recommendation by Dec. 31.

“The ministry’s internal resources are currently fully committed to addressing the issues related to COVID-19 and supporting school districts and independent school authorities as they prepare to restart school after a lengthy disruption in the spring of 2020,” writes Mr. MacDonald.

“Upon the safe restart of B.C. schools, we will shift our resources to addressing this recommendation on the time frame noted above.”

Mr. Chalke said the situation affected English, communications and French exams, with a technical error at the ministry level when tabulating exam reports into their systems.

“It was disappointing for us to see that the ministry was aware that the exam results were wrong and yet they continued in both their public statement to postsecondary institutions and to the public to indicate they were investigating the exam results as opposed to indicating that they were wrong.”

In his report, Mr. Chalke says, “The ministry did not have in place the checks and balances that are cornerstones of good public administration.”

Mr. Chalke writes that ministry statements to the public were “misleading” and played down the situation and extent of the problem rather than informing students and their families that incorrect marks had been issued to multiple postsecondary institutions, naming those institutions and notifying the students and institutions immediately.

The ombudsperson said the ministry implied publicly that postsecondary institutions across North America had reassured students they would not be affected, “when, in fact, at the time the ministry made this statement only one institution had given that assurance.”

“This report is an absolute bombshell as it shows the NDP government knowingly misled the public and jeopardized countless students’ academic futures,” Dan Davies, the education critic for the Opposition BC Liberals, and a former teacher, said in a statement.

On Thursday, the ministry acknowledged “this situation was stressful for students and their parents when it happened,” but that in August, 2019, it conducted its own internal review and began updating its processes ahead of Mr. Chalke’s investigation.

The ministry said, in a statement, that it has addressed four of Mr. Chalke’s recommendations, and is enacting the others by the end of the year.

The ministry also said it reviewed or remarked exams as requested, confirmed they are correct, and has not received any follow-ups or complaints from students or parents since August, 2019. “We’ve learned from this and have taken steps to ensure it doesn’t happen again. "

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