Road accident question omitted from exam paper

Leaving Certificate students in the town where the worst school bus crash in Irish history occurred last month sat a specially modified exam today.

An essay topic: ‘Timpistí bóthair’ (Road Accidents), was omitted from the Ordinary Level Irish exam at the four secondary schools in Navan, Co Meath, three weeks after five girls from the area were killed on their way home from school.

The State Examinations Commission came under fierce criticism yesterday after a question on the Junior Certificate Ordinary Level English Paper 1 required pupils to write about travelling on a school bus.

Students at the effected schools were said to be shocked and distressed but the board stepped in today to prevent any repeat of the controversy as candidates sat down to Paper 1 in the Irish exam at 1.30pm this afternoon.

A spokeswoman said in the Composition section of the paper, candidates were asked to write a continuous piece on one topic from a choice of three.

“The choice of composition topics on the paper included ‘Timpistí bóthair’,” she said.

“The State Examinations Commission made a slight modification to the examination paper for candidates taking this examination in the four second level schools in Navan, Co Meath.

“In the modified paper, the composition topic ‘Timpistí bóthair’ was substituted with ‘An Teilifís’ (Television).”

The spokeswoman said the decision to make this modification was made in recognition of the upset experienced by candidates in these schools following the inclusion in yesterday’s Junior Certificate Ordinary Level English Paper 1 of the composition topic ‘Travelling on the School Bus’.

“Any upset caused to any candidate as a result of the inclusion of this composition topic was certainly not intended,” she said.

“The SEC always reviews its policies and procedures at the end of each examination season.

“This issue will cause us to review the context in which examination papers are set in the future,” she added.

Aimee McCabe, 15, of Hayestown; Deirdre Scanlon, 17, from Yellow Furze, Beauparc; Claire McCluskey, 18, from Rathdrinagh, Beauparc; and Lisa Callan, 15, from Newtown, Beauparc, were killed as they travelled home from St Michael’s Loretto Convent, Navan on May 23.

The fifth girl who died on the bus was Sinead Ledwidge, 15, from Senchalstown, Navan, who was a pupil at nearby Beaufort College.