The Authority has come under fire from the State Government over what it called the “extremely traumatic” mix-up impacting 140 ancient history pupils.

Education Minister John-Paul Langbroek put the authority on notice after launching an investigation into the bungle that was discovered on Monday, saying there had been “communication issues” in the past.

Brisbane State High School was the first to announce that their ancient history students had been studying the wrong Roman emperor ahead of Wednesday’s final exam.

Langbroek confirmed on Wednesday that affected schools had been teaching pupils about Augustus Caesar when they were supposed to be studying Julius Caesar.

“I want to reassure those students and their parents and the teachers affected that we’ll be making every investigation into how this happened,” he said.

“Of course, I’m very unhappy at the situation developing ... for the stress that it will have caused for everyone.”

The other affected schools were Flagstone State Community College, Meridan State College, Redcliffe State High School, Yeronga State High School, St Teresa's Catholic College, West Moreton Anglican College, James Nash State High School and Kuranda District State College.

The authority – which sets the topics for Year 12 exams – would be the focus of the probe, Langbroek warned.

“I’ll be making sure that the make-up of the Queensland Curriculum and Assessment Authority board is appropriately done for the future to make sure we don’t see a repeat of these activities,” Education Minister John-Paul Langbroek says. PHOTO: AAP

The investigation will look at its guidelines and processes, with the minister noting there had been communication issues with schools during ex-Tropical Cyclone Alfred in March.

“For all of us, as parents or students, who have been through situations like this it would be extremely traumatic,” he said. 

“I want to reassure these students and their parents and the teachers affected that we’ll be making every investigation into how this happened.” 

“I’ll be making sure that the make-up of the Queensland Curriculum and Assessment Authority board is appropriately done for the future to make sure we don’t see a repeat of these activities,” Langbroek said.

No other subject had been caught up in the bungle because ancient history had the only syllabus change this year, he said.

Augustus was a focus of the 2024 exam in Queensland, but this year the exam topic switched to Julius.

Students were told about the mix-up just days ahead of the final exam which is worth 25 per cent of their overall grade.

It is understood students could have chosen not to sit for Wednesday’s exam, with measures in place to ensure a “fair” overall result for the subject.

That is likely to be calculated by statistical analysis, using the 75 per cent of the work they have already completed

The authority said schools were notified of the ancient history exam topic more than 12 months in advance.

For the 2025 exam, schools were first advised back in August 2023 and had been provided reminders since, Acting Chief Executive Officer Claude Jones said.

The authority said it would also work closely with the Government to get to the bottom of the gaffe, taking steps to avoid a repeat in the meantime.

They include making the test topic more prominent on its websites, including it in the exam timetable published in May and seeking early confirmation that schools are teaching the correct subject.

“We are committed to ensuring this situation doesn’t happen again,” Jones said.

Meanwhile, the cost of the Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority’s 2024 exam bungle, which impacted 65 out of 74 tests sat by 90,000 students, has been revealed, setting taxpayers back upwards of $800,000, according to the Herald Sun.

A VCAA junior staff member plunged the entire Year 12 exam process into chaos in 2024 by unintentionally producing corrupted VCE exam cover sheets.

The well-meaning short-term contractor devised a new, faster approach for developing online exam instruction sheets and created 74 in one day, which were uploaded to the exam authority website on October 4.

Unfortunately, 65 of them contained exam questions 'hidden in plain sight', which were downloaded 6000 times before being pulled down a week later.

The exam scandal resulted in the dismissal of the VCAA board and the resignation of chief executive Kylie White, which also contributed to additional expenses.

(with AAP)