QTAC chief executive John Griffiths apologised to Year 12 students on Saturday morning by publishing a statement on the QTAC website.

"Regretfully, testing of the release information rolled out into our live production space, which issued ATAR notifications to 24,000 Queensland Year 12 students," Dr Griffiths wrote.

"As there is no data (comparative marks) currently in the system students may have received a notification that they are ATAR-ineligible.

"QTAC acknowledges this technical error and deeply apologise to our Year 12 cohort."

Education Minister Grace Grace would not take questions on Saturday.

Dr Rowan said that was simply not good enough and Ms Grace should explain the error.

"These students have been going through an incredibly difficult year with COVID-19, with the disruptions to their schooling and for all the events that they have not been able to attend," he said.

"It is really heart-breaking for these students to have this distress caused to them."

Dr Rowan said the situation would be "heartbreaking" for many many students who will simply be confused by the email from QTAC.

"There will be many students who are are not aware that this is an error," Dr Rowan said.

"There needs to be a clear and transparent explanation to them and this needs to come from the Minister.

"Because the systems and processes are over-sighted by the Minister.

"She needs to be accountable as to how this has occurred."

A QTAC spokesman on Saturday said QTAC an independent body outside Education Queensland and why Ms Grace would not comment on QTAC's mistaken email.

QTAC's Dr Griffiths did apologise to Year 12 students.

"This has no doubt caused additional anxiety during what has already been a trying year for our school community," Dr Griffiths added.

"We receive the Year 12 result file from the QCAA (Queensland Curriculum and Assessment Authority) on Monday, which is when the actual calculation of the Queensland ATAR begins," he said.

"We are on track for official release on Saturday 19 December."

Dr Rowan said a number of issues in the past fortnight showed problems were just beneath the surface in Education Queensland.