Thirty-nine students have Leaving Cert results permanently withheld due to cheating

SEC confirmed it had provisionally withheld an additional 21 Leaving Cert results, on a without-prejudice basis, pending further communication with the schools and candidates concerned. Picture: Laura Hutton/RollingNews.ie

Thirty-nine Leaving Cert students found to be cheating in this year's State exams have had their results permanently withheld by the State Examinations Commission (SEC).

New figures provided by the SEC show 39 exam results from the Leaving Cert/Leaving Cert Applied have been permanently withheld this year, with the SEC confirming it had provisionally withheld an additional 21 Leaving Cert results, on a without-prejudice basis, pending further communication with the schools and candidates concerned.

The 39 exam results “permanently withheld” from candidates by the SEC this year “includes full results withheld, or marks withheld, from candidates found to be in breach of the SEC's examinations regulations”.

The withheld results are open to appeal.

Last year, some 61 results in Leaving Cert examinations were permanently withheld at the end of the review process.

On the 39 students to have results withheld this year, a spokeswoman for the SEC said “due to the small number of candidates involved, for privacy reasons, we do not provide any regional or gender breakdown”.

The 39 students found to be in breach of SEC exam regulations this year is a tiny fraction of the 59,727 candidates who registered for the Leaving Certificate examination this year and the 3,812 candidates who registered for the final year examinations in the Leaving Certificate Applied.

The SEC spokeswoman explained: "The most common penalty applied is the withholding of the result in the subject in question. Where a more serious breach of the regulations occurs such as copying in more than one subject, withholding of all results and/or debarring from repeating the examination may be applied.

“Withholding of results occurs as a consequence of a candidate attempting to gain advantage in the examination by means which contravene the regulations for the conduct of candidates during examinations as set out in the Rules and Programmes for Secondary Schools Cases of suspected cheating can come to light in a number of ways, according to the SEC."

These include where an examiner may detect similar work from more than one candidate when correcting work from the same centre or while marking an examination script, an examiner may discover a memorandum, notes or paper brought in by a candidate in an attempt to gain an advantage in the examination.

The SEC spokeswoman said: “The principles of natural justice are applied when following up such cases. Details of the evidence available, such as superintendent’s reports, confiscated material or items, notes or work prepared that exhibits evidence of collusion, are given to the candidate through his/her school.

“The candidate is invited to offer a response to the evidence presented and the school authorities are also free to offer comments if they consider it appropriate.

“The final decision is communicated in writing to the candidate again via his/her school. A decision to withhold a result is open to appeal. While every effort is made to conclude an investigation prior to the issue of the examination results, it is not always possible to do so."

According to the SEC, in the interest of being fair to all candidates, the SEC must be satisfied marks awarded have been gained fairly and will investigate any suggestion, suspicion or allegation of cheating or other impropriety in relation to the examinations.

The SEC said: "This is essential in order to uphold the integrity of the Irish State examinations system and to underpin equity and fairness within the system in order to enable all candidates to display their achievements on an equal footing."