The Victorian government will accept a recommendation to refresh the leadership of the state’s school exam authority following a new report into years of Victorian Certificate of Education (VCE) failures. 

The review into the Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority (VCAA) — launched in the wake of a recent exam blunder — found the authority lacked a sustainable budget.

The government said it had also accepted a recommendation from the report to “reset” the organisation’s leadership, except the newly appointed CEO. 

Some students sitting the 2024 VCE exams were able to access questions online ahead of time that were the same or similar to those that appeared on the actual tests.  

Cover sheets in sample exams for some subjects contained questions in transparent text which could be revealed if copied and pasted into another document. 

Investigations found this occurred in 65 of the 116 VCE examinations that year. 

There were also errors in the 2022 mathematics exams and in the 2023 mathematics and chemistry exams.

The VCAA’s chief executive at the time of the 2024 blunder, Kylie White, resigned following the debacle and its board was later fired.

Earlier this year, Andrew Smith from Education Services Australia was appointed as the new CEO.

He welcomed the report and said it provided a clear plan for the authority going forward.

“I understand that students and schools feel they have been let down by the VCAA,” Mr Smith said.

“I want to assure everyone studying their VCE this year that the VCAA is fully focused on delivering a successful 2025 exam period and students, schools and families can have every confidence we will do just that.”A compsoite image of two exams

White space on sample cover sheets for some subjects was able to be highlighted to reveal exam questions written in transparent text. (ABC News/vcaa.vic.edu.au)

A team of external reviewers was appointed last November to examine all elements of the body’s operating model, with an initial report in April finding staff were under pressure to make up for multiple delays and missed deadlines.

The second part of that report, released on Monday, found that the VCAA has not been properly equipped to carry out its responsibilities.

It made 11 recommendations, including maintaining an independent monitor for a further year to ensure the authority is fit for purpose.  

“The VCAA lacks many of the foundational structures, governance, processes, technology and capabilities that are commonplace in modern organisations,” independent reviewer, Yehudi Blacher, said. 

“These deficiencies have manifested particularly over the past five years.” 

The report said improvements had been made ahead of this year’s exams. 

Avoidable mistakes made, report finds

The first stage of the review found there was little organisational regard for the cost of activities being undertaken and that the recent departures of long-serving staff members had exposed gaps in training and procedures.

“Consequently, mistakes were made that might otherwise have been avoidable,” Dr Blacher said in the report. 

It noted the authority had seen significant change over recent years, including disruption from the COVID pandemic and a high turnover of leadership, which it said “accelerated a deterioration of morale and acceptable behaviour”. 

It found poor management over a number of years was a key cause of “many of the issues manifesting in the VCAA”. 

“A progressive spill-and-fill process will allow the new CEO to set clear expectations for the executive and other people managers, and subsequently, be explicit about the capabilities they must demonstrate or develop,” the report said.

The report also found the VCAA lacked control over its finances and urgently needed to establish a robust evidence base for its costs.

It said the authority should better direct its available funding to deliver core functions more efficiently and effectively. 

The government said it will accept all 11 recommendations.

Ben Carroll speaking.

Ben Carroll said immediate action was being taken to fix the problems within the VCAA (AAP: Joel Carrett)

Education Minister Ben Carroll said the review would ensure the VCAA was fit to deliver world-class education.

“This root-and-branch review of the VCAA has left no stone unturned in identifying the cause of last year’s mistakes and we’re wasting no time getting on with fixing them,” he said.

Stage one’s eight recommendations were on track to be delivered for this year’s exams while the reforms proposed in this review were expected to take three years to deliver, according to Dr Blacher.