As is readily evidenced by looking through any of my articles for spelling errors, we all make mistakes, some of us all the time. Not often though do we make mistakes that are then given out to nearly 70,000 recently graduated high school students on their official Higher School Certificate, er, certificates.
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In a statement today, the NSW Education Standards Authority apologised ‘unreservedly’ to every student that was issued a 2018 certificate that erroneously stated it was issued “without alteration or erasure on 14th December 2017“:
This mistake was caused by human error and we are now working hard to rectify it as quickly as possible. We are currently reprinting replacement certificates which will be sent out to all students as early as possible next week.
According to the Sydney Morning Herald, nearly 69,400 students were affected which, if the figures on the NESA’s website are to be trusted, is all of them.
While this won’t at all affect the validity of their HSC, this will probably feel almost cruelly ironic for the students who stressed their asses off at the prospect at making even a small mistake, a sentiment shared by NSW shadow education minister Jihad Dib: “We asked 70 000 HSC students to give their best last year. What do what they get in return? A Gov that can’t even get the year on the official HSC Certificate correct. They are right to feel disappointed and let down.”
Lol!
(Side note: Please feel free to weigh in in the comments on whether “HSC certificate” is an “ATM machine”-type situation or a way of differentiating between the academic achievement as a concept and the physical piece of paper.)
