Two more execs sacked over OneSchool IT failure

Queensland Education director general Jim Watterston has dismissed two more high-level executives in response to the state's OneSchool system failure.

"The gravity of these system failures has necessitated an unequivocally strong response from the department," he said in a statement today.

The department chief terminated the employment of an assistant director general and an executive director “effective immediately”.

He did not name the executives.

“The staff directly responsible for coding and testing the upgrade were contractors, and their contracts have been terminated,” Watterston said.

He has also issued a “show cause notice” to another departmental staff member, meaning the total fallout from the incident could go as high as six internal and external members of staff.

“The community is entitled to have full confidence that our systems will reliably support principals to protect their students," Watterston said.

The sackings follow this week’s publication of a Deloitte investigation into how an update to the OneSchool system caused as many as 1000 reports of children suspected to be victims of abuse to go missing.

The report found that shortcomings in testing and peer review of software code meant the failure went unnoticed for many months.

Queensland teachers and principals are required to report any concerns about at-risk children to police and child safety authorities. The OneSchool system was designed to automate this process.

Former Education chief information officer David O’Hagan stepped aside earlier this year pending the outcome of the review.