Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority

The Victorian Certificate of Education (often abbreviated VCE) is one credential available to secondary school students who successfully complete year 11 and 12 in Victoria, it is the predominant choice for students wishing to pursue tertiary education. The VCAA conducts external assessments for units 3/4 studies which includes written examinations, oral examinations or performances based on the study. In addition, the VCAA also administers the General Achievement Test (GAT), taken by all Victorian students prior to completing their VCE.

The VCAA showcases student work through an annual festival of works created by VCE students in technology, design, multimedia and the cinematic, visual and performing arts. It also recognises student achievement through the VCE Leadership Awards, Plain English Speaking Awards, VCAL Achievement Awards and Margaret Schofield Memorial Scholarships.

The VCAA has taken a leading role in expanding delivery of the Victorian curriculum internationally. The framework to support this includes a northern hemisphere timetable. In 2015-16, more than 1400 students participated in VCAA assessment programs with 25 overseas providers and in 2015, 460 students completed the Victorian Certificate of Education (VCE) with offshore providers.

The Victorian Certificate of Applied Learning (VCAL) is a 'hands-on' option for students in Years 11 and 12 and is a credential awarded to secondary school students who successfully complete year 11 and 12 in Victoria, it is delivered under the VCAA. Students may work in a trade or part-time job on some days of the week and supplement this by doing a set course at school. In 2020, it was announced that the VCAL will be merged with VCE by 2023, before being wholly suspended in 2025. Education Minister James Merlino stated that a 'single VCE certificate would make it easier for students to get a range of skills, both academic and vocational.', with the suspension of VCAL also in response to the stigma that it is solely for non-academic students.[1][2]

The VCAA also administers the National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) which provides an indication of the literacy and numeracy skills of students. Students in Victoria undertake the testing in Years 3, 5, 7 and 9.

The VCAA administers the Plain English Speaking Award (PESA) annually. PESA is a public-speaking competition for students aged 15–18 years. It is designed to provide opportunities for students to build self-confidence and extend their skills in oral communication, speech writing and research.

The 2011 English exam contained a column about tattoos attributed to "part-time journalist and blogger Helen Day", who wrote for the fictional "Street Beat" blog. The Age newspaper accused VCAA of plagiarism and breach of copyright as the column was very similar to an opinion piece featured in the newspaper's 23 September 2010 edition, written by Melbourne writer Helen Razer. The newspaper called the exam's column "clumsily edited".[3]

In 2012, the History: Revolutions exam was meant to include a picture of Nikolai Kochergin's artwork Storming the Winter Palace on 25th October 1917, depicting the events of the 1917 October Revolution in Russia. Instead, a doctored picture was used in the exam, in which a large robot had been edited in to the background of the scene. (Said robot was a Marauder from BattleTech, a science fiction setting in which a fictional 28th century general named 'Aleksandr Kerensky' like the nonfictional October Revolution leader played an important role during a pivotal coup and civil war.) A VCAA spokesperson admitted that the image was "sourced and acknowledged by the VCAA as coming from the Internet", and new internal guidelines were issued for using internet-sourced content in exams.[4][5] Of the 5,738 students that sat the exam, 2,379 chose the Russia section, of which 130 received an adjusted score.[6]

In 2016, a computer error allowed for 2075 students (approximately 2.5% of VCE candidates) to receive their ATAR score and VCE results five days earlier than they were supposed to be announced. External SMS provider for VCAA and the Victorian Tertiary Admissions Centre (VTAC), Salmat Digital, created an error that enabled students to receive their results before the expected release date by texting VCAA.[7] Suzanne Connelly, a spokeswoman for VTAC and VCAA, apologised on behalf of all agencies involved.[8]

This sparked outrage from parents of students who did not receive their scores, considering it as "unfair".[9] Students who were able to receive their results also questioned its legitimacy and reliability. The VCAA and VTAC acted to contact affected students and their schools to reassure them regarding the accidental early results release. The release of the remaining 97.5% of results took place without further issue at the planned time. Education Minister James Merlino ordered an investigation into the situation, which had compromised results that are normally closely guarded until the official release.[10]

The 2018 English exam included an article in which fictional writer Jonty Jenkins scathingly attacked a cafe franchise named "Calmer Coffee" opening in his local town, criticising its unfriendly staff and unwelcoming ambience that he described as "an assault on the senses". After the exam completed, students discovered that a real "Calmer Cafe" existed in Aberfeldie, a suburb just north-west of Melbourne. The cafe's manager, Elise Jenkins, shares the same surname as the exam question's fictional writer. Within hours, the cafe received over 100 negative reviews on Google Maps from Year 12 students, bringing down its rating from nearly 5 stars to as low as 3.3.[11][12] Google Maps temporarily removed the cafe from search results, and later reinstated it but kept reviews inaccessible. At the time, the cafe had 405 reviews.[13]

The next day, Tara Conron, owner of the cafe, told The Age she had hired a lawyer and would be pursuing legal action against VCAA for "uncanny" similarities between the exam and the actual cafe. Conron noted the identical surnames of Jenkins, stated that she employs someone with a "man bun", as does the employer in the exam article, and both the fictional and actual cafe "stand out" in their respective suburbs.[12]

A year later, it was reported that Conron was no longer pursuing legal action against VCAA, telling The Age that the cafe staff had placed the matter behind them, and saying "we’ve just loved to joke about it this year".[14]

On 11 November 2022 The Age newspaper published an article ("For some, this VCE maths exam didn't add up") [15] alleging errors on the 2022 Specialist Mathematics Exam 2 that included:

Section A Question 4: No correct answer (because the values of a and c can be any real number),

Section A Question 19: No correct answer (because confidence intervals are calculated for unknown population means, not for sample means),

Section B: Question 6 part (f) (the question cannot be answered because the relevant random variables are not stated to be independent).

The Examination Report published by the VCAA for this Exam makes no acknowledgement of these alleged errors. The answers used by the VCAA to mark this exam are not available to the public. It is reasonable to assume they are the same as the answers given in the Examination Report.