Apology, compensation coming to students affected by botched 2019 Grade 12 transcripts

The B.C. government says it is in the process of sending out apology letters, and is prepared to compensate the thousands of Grade 12 students who were issued incorrect transcripts in 2019.

In a statement Monday, the province says it is accepting online applications for compensation from affected students who can "demonstrate losses or expenses that arose from the June 2019 provincial Grade 12 exam tabulation errors."

It also says apology letters are being sent to all students whose exam marks were impacted.

In 2019, the Ministry of Education admitted two tabulation errors resulted in incorrect exam results for 18,741 students who wrote provincial exams in June 2019.

An  August 2020 Office of the B.C. Ombudsperson report made recommendations, two of which were to apologize and compensate students who faced financial implications as a result of the errors.

The ministry says it has now acted on all six of the report's recommendations and had previously implemented four of those relating to "processes and protocols for quality assurance, escalation of issues and communication protocols."

It also says it made immediate changes to "ensure a more rigorous process for provincial assessments." 

According to the statement, an independent third party will provide adjudication services for the compensation fund which launched Monday.

It says applicants will be notified of claim decisions by that third party and promises a detailed process for appealing denials.

Claim submissions will be accepted until May 24, and compensation will be issued for validated claims by August 2021.