Perhaps the educators need to go back to school

[samhexum]

Nearly 150 high school students were excused from a statewide exam after they were taught about the wrong Caesar in history class.

Teachers in at least eight schools in Queensland, Australia, had been teaching year 12 students about Augustus Caesar, the heir to Julius Caesar, for the test, which was scheduled for Wednesday, Oct. 29, per the Australian Broadcasting Company (ABC).

The major exam had focused on Augustus for the past four years, but teachers didn’t realize the topic had changed — even though schools were notified about the upcoming switch in 2023 and the information was available publicly online, per the outlet.

The exam was worth 25% of the overall course grade for students, and the schools realized their error a mere two days before the scheduled exam date. Brisbane State High School was the first school to recognize that the mistake had occurred, per ABC.

While the Ministry of Education initially said that the student’s grades would be scaled to adjust for the oversight, they ultimately excused the 140 affected students from the exam altogether.

“I’m very unhappy about the situation,” Education Minister John-Paul Langbroek said in a statement to reporters, per the Associated Press. He also described the situation as “extremely traumatic” for the students — many of whom were frantically cramming for Wednesday’s test before they learned they would no longer be required to take it.

Langbroek also said that he has opened an investigation into the matter to ensure similar mistakes do not happen in the future, per The Guardian.

“I have directed the director general of the Department of Education to urgently investigate how the QCAA [Queensland Curriculum and Assessment Authority] communicates with schools to implement syllabus changes,” he said.

 

[mike carey]

In my higher school certificate I discovered when I sat for the French exam that my teacher had omitted one mandatory text and taught us one that wasn't on the curriculum. I still passed, for what it's worth. That was one school and frankly one slightly ditzy teacher. This instance was at eight schools in Queensland, but even so only eight of many schools state-wide. Not all would have had Ancient History as an option for the final years of school, it's not typically a popular elective subject, but nevertheless this was a significant story for several days after it broke, while the authorities sorted out what had happened.

In Australia, each state runs external examinations as the final chapter in a high school education, and schools are required to teach to the curricula for the various subjects. There is discretion by schools as to which subjects are offered but that is determined by demand for them by students and the specialist teachers they have available to teach, not any sort of oversight committee or community board, at least for state schools. Religious and independent schools have their own processes but their students still take the same exams. Some independent schools also offer the international baccalaureate.

And as so often happens, in the story posted above, it's not the Australian Broadcasting Company. The ABC, like its counterparts in Canada and the UK is the public sector broadcaster, and it's a corporation owned by the commonwealth government but managed at arms length by a board. I believe that in Canada, that type of structure is called a crown corporation. The ABC is independent of the government, often aggressively so, by no means a 'state broadcaster' although I have seen US press outlets refer to it as such.

[MaybeMaybeNot]

It is hard to keep up when you are working 80 hours a week and struggling to pay for groceries. At least, that would have been my experience as a teacher in the US once upon a time. 

[+ DrownedBoy]

It wasn't until I was in college that I studied under teachers who were actually smarter than me. Thank you, American public schools.

[BSR]

A friend shared a bit of wisdom that would have made high school a lot more bearable:  “the only reason someone teaches high school is that they’re too second-rate to do anything else.”  A few exceptions, sure, but the truth can be so ouchy-painful sometimes.