Future of exam blunder superintendent hangs in the balance

A DECISION will not be made until later this year on whether to pay or offer work again to the superintendent whose blunder cost the State €1.7 million and disrupted the Leaving Certificate exam for more than 50,000 students last month.

A report into the incident from the State Examinations Commission (SEC) published by Education Minister Batt O’Keeffe last month found that students in the exam hall at St Oliver’s Community College in Drogheda, Co Louth, did not see the English Paper 2 question sheet for any more than 25 seconds.

However, it was time enough for the contents to be seen by a number of students, and details of the poets being examined and the themes of drama questions to appear in mobile phone messages and on internet services like Twitter, Bebo and a number of web diaries or blogs.