Board under fire as nine schools taught wrong history topic

About 140 students, across nine schools, were learning about the Roman emperor Augustus instead of Julius Caesar before their external exams this week, as Queensland’s education minister blamed the debacle on the public authority in charge of testing.

Of the nine schools, Brisbane State High was the first to be identified as teaching two classes of year 12 ancient history students the incorrect content.

Education Minister John-Paul Langbroek told media on Wednesday morning he acknowledged the error, uncovered days before the test that afternoon, would be “extremely traumatic” for students.

He said an investigation would be done, noting that communication between the Queensland Curriculum and Assessment Authority (QCAA) and schools had “obviously been not carried out appropriately”.

The minister said the QCAA would be appropriately resourced in the future to make sure the issue was not repeated.

The schools affected are:

• Brisbane State High School
• Flagstone State Community College
• Meridan State College
• Redcliffe State High School
• Yeronga State High School
• St Teresa’s Catholic College at Noosaville
• West Moreton Anglican College
• James Nash State High School
• Kuranda District State College

Langbroek said it had not happened in any other subject. He said he accepted there was no way as a senior student that he would be expected to learn a semester’s worth of work in a couple of days.

“What we’ve done is tried to make sure that we identify which schools are affected ... and then provide the reassurance that senior students will need,” he said.

“I would not expect any student to do an exam after they’ve received lectures or information about something that they’ve had two days’ notice for.”

He said students’ previous assessment results would be scaled up to account for the bungle on the ancient history exam.

When asked whether the assessment would therefore be cancelled, he said he “wasn’t sure”.

The minister’s office said the individual affected schools were given the final say on whether their students would sit the exam.

If the students performed better on their exams than the result calculated by the QCAA, they would be allowed to take the higher result.

“I’m very unhappy about the situation developing as it has and for the stress that it will have caused for everyone,” Langbroek said.

The education minister said he would look into reports the department was previously warned about students learning the incorrect topic at Rochedale State High School.

This masthead exclusively revealed students at the school were taught the incorrect topic for weeks, before the issue was realised two months ago.

A parent was unhappy with the school’s response to the issue, and contacted the director of the Education Department’s Metropolitan South Region in August.

The department did not respond until mid-October and told the parent to deal with the school’s principal.

The mistake was not considered on a wider scale and no warning was sent to other schools.

Langbroek was asked whether he was concerned the department had not taken further action after receiving the email from the Rochedale parent.

He said that was a “hypothetical question” and one he could not answer.

“That’s something you’ve just put to me right now,” he said. “I’m happy to investigate that particular issue.”

The department is yet to respond to questions from this masthead about why all schools were not asked to check if they were teaching the correct ancient history topic when the issue was uncovered at Rochedale.

“That’s something you put to me just now, I’m happy to investigate that particular issue,” Langbroek said on Wednesday morning.

The minister said the department received hundreds or thousands of complaints about different issues in schools, and the advice given to families was to speak to relevant principals and authorities.

He added he would look at the make-up of the QCAA board, “which has already had some changes over the last six months and since we came to government over the last year”.

He noted “communication issues in the past, especially around the time of the ex-tropical cyclone Alfred”.

“I’ll be making sure that the make-up of the Queensland Curriculum and Assessment Authority is [appropriate] for the future.”

Langbroek said he wanted to see “all of their communications guidelines, including the schools and about processes in which they change the curriculum, the way that they communicate that to schools”.

Experienced academic Doune Macdonald has been the QCAA’s acting chair, and Claude Jones the acting chief executive, since the previous chair, Carol Nicoll and previous chief executive, Jacqueline Wilton, both resigned on the same day in June.

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