Students does State a service: Bureaucratic nonsense

It took courage, tenacity, and resolve for an 18-year-old student to take on the organs of the State in order to get justice.

Wexford student Rebecca Carter had been in danger of losing out on studying veterinary medicine at University College Dublin because an examiner had wrongly totted up her Leaving Certificate results, leaving her short the points needed for the course.

When the error was uncovered, the State Examination Commission was contacted but, unbelievably, refused to correct the error until mid-October, even though this would make it far too late for her to take her college place. She had to go to the trouble and expense of a High Court case for commonsense to prevail.

Ms Carter described the examiner’s error as a ‘disgrace’ but the real issue was not that a mistake had been made but that the SEC refused to correct it in the appropriate time, arguing that all such appeals are not considered until mid-October.

Such bureaucratic nonsense is the real disgrace and would be laughable were its consequences not so serious. Neither the Commission nor UCD made it easy for the student, as they opposed her court application at every turn.

Ms Carter has done the State some service by highlighting a corrections process that Mr Justice Humphreys described as “manifestly unfit for purpose”.