B.C. Ombudsperson Jay Chalke said he is monitoring the Ministry of Education’s response to the province-wide grade 12 exam tabulation error.
“I am concerned about this error and the impact it may have on students across B.C,” Chalke said in a statement.
“This is a very stressful time for students as they make future education plans. I urge the ministry to not only address the technical issue but to also identify and remedy any individual impacts. Students and parents should be proactively informed about what they can do if they believe they have been adversely affected.”
B.C. Education Minister Rob Fleming issued a statement on the issue Wednesday afternoon, saying it was human error that caused the incident, but it has been resolved and updated grade results are accurate.
“I know this has caused anxiety for students and their families, and I want to assure them that this will not have an impact on admission to colleges and universities,” Fleming’s statement said.
“After the discovery, the ministry contacted all post-secondary institutions in Canada and NCAA institutions in the United States to ensure that no student applications for the fall would be affected.”
Fleming said when the issue was discovered affecting the system that grades the June provincial exams, he ordered staff to work around the clock to identify and fix the problem.
In a message posted Monday via the ministry’s online transcript service, students were advised of the problem and assured that ministry staff were working to identify and resolve the issue as quickly as possible.
Advisories sent to students and parents of several Metro Vancouver secondary schools confirm the problem relates to the English 12 exam and the exam written by B.C.’s French immersion students.
With files from Canadian Press
CHEK News
