Michael Sekatchev, seen in Vancouver on July 31, 2019, says he and his family were 'scared' after seeing his marks, and were worried about his conditional admissions offer from the University of British Columbia.Jimmy Jeong/The Globe and Mail
Thousands of graduating British Columbia students now have the accurate results of their provincial English exams after the B.C. Ministry of Education scrambled to fix a systems error that affected transcripts in several courses.
Students say the error meant the province posted exam grades that were drastically lower than what they should have been. Many students were incorrectly listed as having failed English, a class that is required for university entrance, and some worried their postsecondary acceptances and scholarships would be affected.
Marks for two French classes, and two other language classes, were also affected. About 32,000 students took the exams.
Education Minister Rob Fleming said in a statement that ministry staff worked around the clock to identify and fix the mistake, which he said was made through human error when data were being transferred between systems.
“I am confident that students and families can know their grades are correct,'' Mr. Fleming says in the statement.
“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.”
The ministry acknowledged Tuesday that there was an issue with some exam results, including the Grade 12 English exam. That exam is worth 40 per cent of students’ final grades, and is essential for students’ graduation and applications for universities.
The ministry said Tuesday that because of an “anomaly” in the exam results, it had removed all the results and was conducting a review. It also said it was working with Canadian and U.S. universities to alert them to the problem.
But despite the fix, some students were left fuming. They said they were not alerted to the abnormal scores until media coverage.
“I did not receive any information from the B.C. government that the score was wrong until yesterday [Tuesday],” said Arden Grew, who found out his “abnormally low” marks last Saturday during his vacation in Switzerland.
The Victoria graduate said the only information he had that the score was probably inaccurate was from his peers and his English teacher.
“Nothing at all from the ministry,” he wrote in an e-mail.
Mr. Grew said his failing mark prompted worry about his university acceptance and ultimately his future.
“My heart beat rose tremendously when I saw that I had only received a 22% on the exam, putting me at a C overall in the course,” he said. “I instantly began thinking about how my scholarship to UVic would be rescinded or even my application.”
Michael Sekatchev, who attended Sir Winston Churchill Secondary School in Vancouver, saw the incorrect exam results last Friday. He said both his English and French provincial exam results showed “significant discrepancies” from his high-school averages.
Mr. Sekatchev said he and his family were “scared” after seeing the marks, and were concerned about his conditional offer from University of British Columbia.
He added he received information Monday afternoon that the ministry was looking into an issue, but even then, neither his peers nor he knew what exactly the issue was.
Last Saturday, some concerned students created a chat group on Facebook called “June Provincial Victims.” So far, the group consists of about 130 people, mostly students with conditional offers from UBC.
B.C. Ombudsperson Jay Chalke said on Wednesday that he is monitoring the ministry’s response to the exam tabulation error, and urges the ministry to identify and remedy any individual affects.
“I am concerned about this error and the impact it may have on students across B.C.,” Mr. Chalke said.
“This is a very stressful time for students as they make future education plans. … Students and parents should be pro-actively informed about what they can do if they believe they have been adversely affected.”
Catherine Newell Kelly, registrar at the University of Waterloo, said the all Ontario universities have been informed that there is an issue with final grades for students in British Columbia.
“We want to make sure that B.C. students get a fair assessment for entry to Waterloo’s programs, so we will not assess final conditions until the government gives us their correct grades,” she said.