VICTORIA — British Columbia's ombudsperson says the Education Ministry has agreed to apologize and compensate students harmed by incorrect provincial exam results last year.
Jay Chalke says his investigation found the ministry's communication with students and their families to be misleading and in some cases inaccurate even after the errors were identified.
The ministry posted more than 18,000 incorrect exam scores, roughly half of which were lower than they should have been.
Grade 12 students intending to enter Canadian universities in the fall are often accepted based on marks that only reflect their first two terms of Grade 12 work, however that can change depending on final marks.
Chalke says in a news release the investigation found a series of unclear, inaccurate and misleading statements in the wake of the errors.
Over the course of several days, he says the ministry was slow to advise the public of the nature and scope of the tabulation errors and gave overly broad assurances that the situation was fully in-hand.
For example, the report highlights a ministry news release that suggested that post-secondary institutions throughout North America had provided assurances that students would not be impacted, when in fact only the University of British Columbia had done so.
"Ministry staff worked quickly and diligently to correct the tabulation errors and that was positive but, when the government makes a mistake, good public administration demands more," Chalke says in the release.
"Not only does the technical error need to be fixed but the potential impact on people needs to be addressed. When government makes a mistake, it needs to put things right."
The release says the ministry has accepted six recommendations made in his report that include establishing a better quality assurance process for the review and approval of exam results and a communications protocol so that a ministry official certifies information is accurate before its release.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 20, 2020.
