EU court to rule on exam papers case

The EU’s top court will issue a ruling today which could have major implications for all exam bodies and the rights of candidates to examine their own test papers.

The European Court of Justice (ECJ) will determine whether the contents of exam papers can be regarded as personal data in a landmark case brought by Peter Nowak, a trainee accountant from Arklow, Co Wicklow. He failed an accountancy exam overseen by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Ireland (CAI) on four occasions and sought access to his test papers.

The ruling is expected to be closely watched by the State Examinations Commission, which oversees the Leaving and Junior Certificate exams.

Under current rules, students can only access Leaving and Junior Cert exam papers as part of the appeal process and they are not entitled to photocopies or take photographs of the documents.

A legal opinion published by the ECJ earlier this year has already recommended that handwritten exam scripts should be considered personal data under EU legislation.

The case was referred to the ECJ by the Supreme Court in Ireland which sought a determination on whether a person’s exam script constitutes personal data under the EU’s data protection directive.

The initial legal action was brought by Mr Nowak against the Office of the Data Protection Commissioner after it ruled that the CAI was correct in its refusal to grant him access to his own exam papers.

Mr Nowak was awarded compensation of €34,000 by the Dublin Circuit Criminal Court last year for being unfairly dismissed by PWC in 2009 after he failed to pass his CAI exams.

It followed an appeal by Mr Nowak against an award of compensation of €7,500 by the Employment Appeals Tribunal.