B.C. Ombudsperson Jay Chalke announced on Wednesday that he is monitoring the Ministry of Education’s response to the province-wide grade 12 exam tabulation error affecting students and families across the BC.

“I am concerned about this error and the impact it may have on students across BC,” he said. “This is a very stressful time for students as they make future education plans. I urge the ministry to not only address the technical issue but to also identify and remedy any individual impacts. Students and parents should be proactively informed about what they can do if they believe they have been adversely affected.”

In a message posted by the ministry, students accessing their final exam marks via the ministry’s online transcript service were advised of an “anomaly” and assured that the ministry was working to identify and resolve the issue as quickly as possible. The ministry indicated it would review each exam result and ensure grades were accurately reflected on their transcript.

BC’s Ombudsperson has jurisdiction over all BC school boards and districts, universities, colleges and the Ministries of Education and Advanced Education and will continue to monitor this situation.

MEANWHILE, Minister of Education Rob Fleming issued the following statement in response to the B.C. student transcript issue:

“The issue that has affected transcripts for Grade 12 B.C. students who wrote provincial exams in June has now been resolved.

“I am confident that students and families can now know their grades are correct.

“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.

“After the discovery, the ministry contacted all post-secondary institutions in Canada and NCAA institutions in the United States to ensure that no student applications for the fall would be affected.

“Post-secondary institutions have stated they will ensure the error in data reporting won’t negatively impact any incoming students.

“When the issue was first discovered, I immediately directed ministry staff to work around the clock to identify and fix the issue.

“The investigation discovered that human error caused the incident when data was being manually transferred between systems.

“Staff have now checked the updated results for accuracy. System checks and manual spot checks of results at every stage of the process have now confirmed their accuracy. Grades will be communicated directly to post-secondary institutions.”