Commission defends supervisor system after suspension of superintendent

THE State Examinations Commission has defended the system which allows schools appoint individual supervisors for more than 7,000 students with special needs after it emerged one sent Twitter internet messages while supposed to be overseeing a Dublin student’s exam.

The superintendent at a special centre at the Institute of Education in Leeson Street sent a number of Twitter messages, or “tweets”, probably from a mobile phone, during Thursday afternoon’s second Leaving Certificate English exam. But as well as tweeting messages complaining that the exam was “dragging on a wee bit” and pitying the girls in the school as “im young handsome & probably very distracting”, he also gave away where he was working. The supervisor, believed to be a postgraduate student, was suspended by the school after the State Examinations Commission (SEC) alerted them. However, the SEC would not have been aware of which centre the superintendent was working if he had not mentioned it in one of his tweets, as it does not have a record of the names of superintendents employed by schools.

The SEC sanctions the appointment of readers, scribes or other superintendents in special centres and schools employ them and are later reimbursed.