By Lucy Carroll
Students will sit selective education exams at local public schools next year after “significant failures” at mega-testing sites put children at risk and forced the riot squad to be deployed to control chaotic crowds.
An inquiry into this year’s selective exam fiasco also recommended the NSW Education Department consider returning to pen-and-paper tests after 131 technical failures were recorded at three major test sites.
This year’s high-stakes public selective school tests were for the first time held online and at mega-testing centres including at Canterbury Racecourse, Randwick and Sydney Olympic Park.
Riot police were called to the selective schools test at Canterbury Park Racecourse in May.
But numerous logistical failures meant tests spiralled into chaos as thousands of parents were caught in huge crowds, tests were delayed, exams were cancelled and children were left in tears. Police were called to the Randwick test centre and riot police intervened at the Canterbury site.
The debacle prompted the NSW government to appoint former top bureaucrat of the federal Department of Education, Michele Bruniges, to lead a review into the administration of the opportunity class and selective tests.
Almost 900 complaints were made to the minister and department about the mismanagement of the exams at the three sites.
“Parents were alarmed by unsafe, disorganised conditions and a lack of on-site safeguarding measures,” the report said.
The review, released on Friday, contains 12 recommendations, including moving the tests back to local public schools from 2026, with a maximum of 300 students per test.
It also details how at the Canterbury test site on May 2, police were called when about 3000 students and their parents descended on the site for the afternoon exam. “Students became distressed when seeing the crowd through the glass doors. Numerous incidents of parents shouting verbal abuse at staff and police were reported,” the report said.
About 30,000 students applied to sit for the opportunity class and selective high school tests for next year’s entry. Students who sat the test at a mega-test centre were given the chance to resit it three weeks later, and about 2500 children took up the offer.
Students are expected to receive their first round offers on Friday afternoon.
Parents and children queue at Randwick Racecourse for the selective schools test in May.Credit: Louise Kennerley
The NSW Education Department outsourced the delivery of the tests to private provider Janison, which won a contract last year worth $45 million.
The report recommended the department run the tests from next year, including managing invigilation, sites and tech support, although it suggested tests “continue to be developed by an external provider”.
It said the department should “weigh up the costs and benefits” of digital tests or returning to pen-and-paper exams. This could be an “interim measure before improvements are made towards implementing a future adaptive testing model”.
Bruniges said a “greater public good” would be provided if selective education was “not increasingly narrowed by socio-educational advantage but truly reflects equitable access for all students with natural gifts and high potential”.
“Missing out on a place can lead to a sense of failure. The stakes are further exacerbated by the coaching industry, which places a premium on successful entry to selective education. It is a self-regulated industry.”
The report detailed up to two-hour delays in test start times at the major centres, poor communication to parents at drop-off and pick-up, and disorganisation.
A separate report into the fairness and integrity of the tests was prepared by Professor Jim Tognolini, the head of the Centre for Educational Measurement and Assessment at Sydney University.
He said significant disruptions to the tests at the three major centres likely had “varying levels of impact on students’ scores”. There were 1269 students who re-sat the selective test, and 1376 who re-sat the opportunity class exam.
Former secretary of the Department of Education, Dr Michele Bruniges, led an independent review into this year’s selective school tests.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen
“The decision to offer all students attending these centres the opportunity to re-sit the tests on another occasion was seen as the fairest solution to the problem,” the report said.
Some parents feared students who had tests postponed would have an unfair advantage by retaking the exam, while others raised concerns about the department’s transparency around decision-making.
He noted potential security risks with online selective tests, with some common questions appearing in exams held on different days. “Some evidence of ‘sharing of items’ practice has emerged now students are aware that there are common items on the different versions of the tests,” he said.
“It might be worthwhile moderating the impact against such potential security breaches by considering in the future moving towards a process of using computer-adaptive tests.”
Students who resat the test will have the results of the common items excluded to ensure fairness, the report said.
About 3 per cent of students who resat the test scored high enough on the resit to “suggest that they may have benefited from the second test”. However, Tognolini said data suggests “minimal, if any, systematic advantage” for those who re-sat the test.
Bruniges’ report said a string of failures, including “ambitious scheduling, the skills of the invigilator workforce for managing a new test event with young children”, and inadequate planning for crowd control all contributed to the failure.
“It has become a high-stakes process, driven by students competing for a fixed number of places,” the report said.
Acting NSW Education Minister Courtney Houssos said the government would accept all of Bruniges’ recommendations including that future tests take place in smaller cohorts at local schools.
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