New South Wales students who completed their Higher School Certificate last year were baffled to notice a glaring typo on the official document this week.
Instead of saying their HSC was issued in December 2018, it read “14th December 2017”.
And that’s not just one certificate – that’s on every one of the 70,000 or so documents that went out to the graduating class of 2018 this week.
On social media, many students said they found the mistake funny.
"Anyone else also have the wrong issue date on their High School Certificate lol. God damn it NESA," wrote one teen posting his certificate to Facebook.
"Holy sh**, are we all getting new ones?" another commented along with several crying with laughter emojis.
Others seemed a little miffed.
"All that stress and breakdowns for a piece of paper with the wrong damn date," one student commented.
"Haven’t got mine yet and I’m really annoyed cause I did really well in my ATAR," another said.
One person who was definitely not laughing was Opposition Education MP Jihad Dib, who raised the issue on Wednesday after he noticed the mistake on his daughter's certificate.
"We asked 70 000 HSC students to give their best last year. What do what they get in return?" he wrote on Twitter. "A [government] that can’t even get the year on the official HSC Certificate correct. They are right to feel disappointed and let down."
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. pic.twitter.com/O1dfkYKMpK
— Jihad Dib MP (@jihaddibmp) January 22, 2019
Later, Education Minister Rob Stokes blamed the NSW Education Standards Authority (NESA) for the blunder, which he vowed the authority would fix, ABC reports.
"Our students show incredible diligence and excellence when undertaking the HSC exams and we expect the independent authority that's charged with administering the exams to demonstrate the same level of care and diligence," Mr Stokes said.
He said the typo was a "human error".
Students are expected to be sent new, corrected certificates, but in the meantime, Mr Stokes said the existing certificates were still valid.
Are you a parent of a NSW school leaver? Did they notice the mistake?
