International Baccalaureate inaction over exam leaks put students’ futures in peril – including in Hong Kong
Hong Kong Free Press
By Lina Vyas
The integrity and value of this year’s International Baccalaureate (IB) exams have been called into question due to inaction over controversial leaked papers. The results of these examinations decide the future of many young graduates, and their dedication and hard-earned achievements have been overshadowed by reports of papers being shared online.
The disregard for such an issue has left students feeling betrayed and has shattered their trust in a prestigious examination system, one that should be reliable and impartial.
The leaks have had a significant impact on students’ performance as they were presented with the possibility that their efforts may be in vain. The leaks emerged in online forums, where identical papers could be found following multiple examinations. Because of the IB paper time zones – putting countries ranging from Japan to the UK in the same group – Hong Kong students were among the worst impacted by these leaks, with their counterparts in latter time zones benefitting.
Taking reference from other university entrance or competitive exams that resort to either retakes or cancellations in such a situation, a lot of IB students were expecting a similar approach, which never materialised. This resulted in unbelievably high levels of stress and anxiety, creating the least ideal environment for their well-being and overall academic performance.
The lack of timely and transparent communication from IB authorities regarding the leaks only intensified the stress felt by students. The IB’s Director of Assessment Matt Glanville recently released a message to students prior to the release of IB results on Saturday, which shocked many with its universality: “the meaning of grades remains consistent with previous years and grade boundaries have not been inflated”.
The statement in itself is controversial as the results should consider the malpractice and the negative impact of the leaks, particularly the mental stress causing underperformance and loss of faith in the system. Glanville’s statement clearly presents IB’s neglect for students’ mental health, with it also mentioning that “[IB] is confident that no individual student has been disadvantaged by the circumstances.”
This position comes as a shock to many affected students and their family members. Previously, the IB had sent an email stating the organisation was taking measures to prevent such an issue occurring again in the future, including “imposing formal start times for exams in each country and moving to having three exam zones across the world.”
This raises questions around why the problem is serious enough to consider implementing change in the forthcoming academic cycle, but not enough to acknowledge and correct errors this year. In 2020, amid the global spread of Covid-19, the IB cancelled examinations and students were awarded their grades based on their predictions. This shows that the IB authorities simply do not want to act in the current situation, something that is the consequence of their own overlook and neglect.
Moving onto the implications of the leaks, universities place great trust in the IB examination board and base their admissions decisions on a student’s results. Given the unacceptable circumstances, the reliability of these results becomes questionable, and casts doubt on how correct it would be for universities to make decisions based on unstandardised examinations.
Universities adopt results issued by international public examination boards and the grades are deemed valid by the IB. Although the IB authorities have themselves accepted exam leaks, it has totally been ignored when making the decision of considering the examination to be valid and un-compromised.
Are we really building the next generation on integrity, fairness, reliability and validity? Universities can play an important role to mitigate this problem by perhaps changing conditional offers to unconditional.
As results day approaches, it is crucial that the IB addresses the leaks better and demonstrate commitment to awarding grades fairly. The IB must take responsibility for the situation, ensuring action is taken to rectify the damage caused and restore faith in the examination system.
Dr Lina Vyas is an associate professor and programme leader of Master of Public Policy and Management with the Department of Social Sciences and Policy Studies of the Faculty of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences at The Education University of Hong Kong. Her teaching and research interests include public sector management, human resource management, and pedagogical issues associated with the improvement and advancement of student learning.
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