Jolanda, your job as parent is to relieve their stress and frustration at exam time, not add to it by constantly insisting that they must be discriminated against. I salute your determination, but believe that you are doing as much harm to your children as the system that may or may not be acting against them. The way the HSC marking system works, is that they will get their own exam mark, PLUS the exam mark in their school that matches their internal ranking. So if they are the top of the class, they will get the top mark, whether they earned it in the exam or not. The two are then averaged. This provides some measure of independence, and can easily be tested by checking results with other kids in the year. If your kids are marked down for their exam, they might not get what they fully deserve as far as results go, but the averaging system will mitigate this to some degree. If they dont get the UAI they need (whether their fault or the depts), a little ingenuity may be called for - try starting a degree with a lower UAI and switching up. Start at a second tier uni then switch across. Good results in uni will ensure that they get where they want to go eventually. Its your job to make sure that they dont lose heart and stop trying. Its not the only adversity that they'll have to face in their lives.

Country Girl. What makes you think that I am adding to thier stress? Just because I fight this matter and listen to their concerns doesn't mean that I am adding to their stress. You seem to want to paint the picture that you want to present.

I find it amazing how much people want to believe that the Department is innocent of this. Do you realise what that means you think of me?

All I have ever asked for is a proper and fair investiation into these allegations so as to protect the children as the situation keeps re-occuring. Policy and Procedure require that allegations of this nature, and in particular to do with child protection, be formally investigated.

Fair treatment has been denied to my children and family every way that you look at it yet you still want to blame me?

I find it amazing how so many people do not actually believe that my children and family deserve justice and deserve to be treated fairly. What ever happened to the concept of a fair go. Or is that just meant to be a fair go for some!

These are children, they deserve to be treated fairly, it should be their right.

Kalin1. If it isn't clear to you by now then what can I say?

PALE. If you get a minute I just wanted to ask you a question, please. In the first instance we requested the original answer sheets and test papers to be set aside and produced under FOI. The DET challenged providing us with access and we went to the ADT. On the day of the planning meeting the DET destroyed the original answer sheets later saying that because they had electronic records of these results that they saw no reason to keep the originals.

We couldn’t check the original answer sheets because they destroyed them. We were given access to the tests but we had to use the DET’s computer printout of the answers in the Department of Education’s office as the originals had been destroyed. On the day that we went in to view the tests my children and I were bullied and harassed until we left in tears unable to check the tests.

We have been unable to get anything directly from the company that marks the test. They say that everything has to go through the DET. Because they are in Victoria even the Privacy Commissioner cannot help because it is in another state.

Now these originals were specifically requested to be set aside under FOI and they knew we had made allegations that these test marks had been manipulated. They destroyed evidence. Is there a Criminal Code that they can be charged under for destroying evidence?

I realize you are busy, so don’t worry if you don’t have time. Maybe somebody else can help me..

Jolanda, I am simply inferring by the heated manner in which you discuss this online, that you discuss this and your feeling of victimisation at home. I apologise if this isnt the case. However, if you discuss this at length with your kids, all you will be teaching them is victimhood. I dont doubt that any government department could bully a group or family and that they have a tendency to coverup after themselves. What I do suggest is that after spending so much time and money fighting this, that you spend a greater amount of time focussing on teaching your kids how to prosper inspite of what's happened, rather than continual complaining. As I have suggested earlier, its probably not the only injustice that they'll have to face in life, and your attitude towards handling setbacks will rub off on the way they approach life. I dont blame you for any unfair treatment against your kids - but I would blame you if they are adversely affected by it in the longterm, as its your job to teach them coping strategies.

As for your question to PALE, I am not 100% sure, but a general rule is that evidence destroyed once subpoeanaed is illegal, but that evidence destroyed prior to any legal dispute is not. They may also have a defence if they routinely destroyed original copies - eg the destruction involved all test results for the year, or they did a similar thing with the test results every year. Try searching www.austlii.edu.au - its the australian legal database. There may be a specific court case or legislation on the matter.

Country Girl. Again for some reason you seem to think that I don’t spend time with my kids! You are creating again the picture that you want in your head.

I am teaching my children how to prosper and they are wonderful children and we have the closest most wonderful relationship because they know that I will do everything in my power to try to protect them and that I respect them. I am very proud of them as they are of me.

I am also teaching them right from wrong. Something that seems to be missing from the teachings of today. If we do not teach our children right from wrong then how will they know?

Have your read Piers Ackerman’s blog in relation to Hiding in the Shadows, the Heiner Affair http://blogs.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/piersakerman/index.php/dailytelegraph/comments/hiding_in_the_shadows/

These were children who were neglected and abused in Government institutions and it was covered up the same way my families matter is being covered up. Where do we draw the line, is it okay if it is just psychological abuse, vilification, denial of justice and oppression, is it okay if it is just bullying. It seems to be okay even if it is sexual abuse and neglect.

Setbacks are a little bit different to child abuse and neglect by adults who have a duty of care to protect you. I am teaching my children strategies but that doesn’t mean that I do not do everything in my power to get justice and protection for my children and to hold those responsible to account. I am not complaining, as you put it - I am making formal allegations that need to be addressed.

As an adult it is my duty and responsibility to protect the children.

Jolanda, the physical and sexual abuse of children in institutions (with no-one to protect or comfort them) and the potential manipulation of test scores in selective schools testing (arguably because the Dept doesnt like the parent) are VERY different matters. That you can even draw a comparison between the two is ridiculous. I have never intimated that you dont spend time with your chldren - my concern is more than you continually draw their attention to victimhood, instead of making the best of a bad situation. Have your kids qualified for Mensa? If so, you have good grounds for a challenge. If not, then perhaps they are simply not as gifted as their mother thinks (arent all parents biased about their kids abilities). If documents have been deliberatly destroyed after being requested, then the Dept has something to answer for. I noticed that you had no response to my suggestion that the doc's might have simply been subject to one of many regular destructions (in the interests of reducing physical records). Is this perhaps why you have failed in your attempts? I am certainly not unsympathetic to your case (indeed I have trawled austlii myself this afternoon, looking for information for you), but simply look at it with unbiased eyes, and am able to see the other means to an end that are out there. I have also seen firsthand the results of parents who insist their children are victims - the lack of accountability or responsibility that these kids grow into. The initial hurt is varied (failed an exam - teacher was biased, lost a family farm - mean grandparents, sacked from a job - unfair boss, lost a house - terrible bank), but result is inevitably the same - people who think nothing is their fault. Whether it is their fault or not, the emphasis should be on "ok, what do we do now" rather than "woe is me".