VCE exam authority driven by fear and secrecy, review told

The agency that runs Victoria’s exam system is driven by fear, secrecy and unchecked authority, an independent review has been told.

The scathing review into the Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority (VCAA) found the agency was in such a poor state that it will take years to fix its bad governance, management failures and a “culture of fear”.

Governance expert Yehudi Blacher said the overwhelming sentiment among staff at the VCAA was “sadness and disappointment” at the state of the agency.

Blacher reviewed the agency after last year’s exam debacle, when questions on 65 of the test papers were accidentally made public before the exams.

His inquiry received submissions from 180 current and former VCAA workers, including one who said decision-making at the authority was driven by fear of bad press, secrecy and unchecked authority. The worker also said there was a culture of impunity for behaviour that would be unacceptable in other workplaces.

But Blacher stopped short of calling for the VCAA – which has been reviewed several times over the years – to be disbanded or absorbed into the Department of Education, and argued it should remain a statutory authority.

The 65-page “root and branch review” – ordered by Education Minister Ben Carroll to try to manage the fallout of the exams leak – was published on Monday. Blacher concluded the authority needed renewal in “almost all areas of its operations”.

He made 11 major recommendations for the authority and warned that it would not be easy to turn around an organisation facing so many problems.

“Achieving those objectives will be neither easy nor quick,” Blacher wrote in the report.

“It has suffered from lack of leadership, management and governance failures, a poor organisational culture, inefficient business processes and difficult relationships with the Department of Education and external stakeholders.”

Blacher pointed out the authority had had seven chief executives in the past five years, and only one had overseen more than one full examination cycle.

The review found some parts of the organisation operated under a “culture of blame” and fear.

“Blame is often assigned swiftly and publicly, and often across organisational functions,” Blacher wrote.

In the small number of areas where there was a culture of fear, staff were concerned about being blamed for issues but also “the subject of sustained criticism or the target of retribution”.

Another submission to the review said many of the VCAA’s decisions “appear reactive, driven by fear of bad press rather than sound process”.

“The VCAA’s culture is shifting – from an open, consultative organisation to one driven by fear, secrecy and unchecked authority. Decisions that once followed transparent processes are now made by individuals who appear to act without accountability,” the submission says.

Education Minister Ben Carroll said on Monday that the government would accept all 11 recommendations, while crediting Blacher for going through the organisation with a fine-tooth comb.

“I’m very confident that we have left no stone unturned in making sure that the examination is right for this year and beyond,” Carroll said of this year’s VCE exam.

Andrew Smith was appointed to head the VCAA earlier this year, and said this year’s exam papers were already printed and prepared for distribution.

The independent review urged the government to keep an independent monitor in place for another year or until the minister was satisfied the body had the processes in place to undertake its functions.

“Feedback from VCAA staff has highlighted the positive impact of the monitor as an additional source of advice and assurance for a very complex examination and assessment process,” Blacher said.

“Given the far-reaching findings of this review and the VCAA’s poor track record in responding to and implementing the findings of prior reviews, we recommend an independent monitor remain in place.”

Last year, 65 exams – more than half of the 116 VCE subjects – were affected when questions were inadvertently leaked on practice papers online. Questions were removed from the sample test material when the mistake was discovered, but some students had already downloaded them, while others accessed them using internet archive tools.

The crisis deepened when it emerged that the authority knew there were problems with some of the exam papers a month before they became public in November 2024.

The exam debacle led to the swift resignation of chief executive Kylie Smith and the sacking of the VCAA board six months later.

Opposition education spokeswoman Jess Wilson said the report was damning, and it was unacceptable that it would take up to three years to fix.

“The VCAA has been given a fail mark on every single aspect,” she said.

“How can Victorian students go into the 2025 VCE exam period having trust in the system? It’s simply unfair it has come to this.”

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