READERS of the Irish Independent finally discovered yesterday what readers of Exam Times have known since Friday of last week: that there was an error in question 4 on the Leaving Cert higher-level maths paper 2.
Exam Times reported prominently on Friday that question 4 presented a triangle with 184 degrees - when, of course, a triangle can only be 180 degrees. We checked with the Department of Education, which acknowledged the error and said examiners would take it into account in the marking. We quoted maths teacher Richard Walsh of the CBS in Tipperary town criticising the Department.
Over the next few days we received quite a few calls from anxious students and parents.
Then yesterday the Irish Independent suddenly woke up to the story and carried the stunning news on the top of its front page that the Department of Education acknowledged an error in the maths paper, quoting - guess who? - Mr Richard Walsh from Tipperary criticising the Department.
The Fianna Fail spokesman on education, Mr Michael Martin, was also quoted criticising the Minister for Education. Mr Martin first learned of the error in the exam when reading Exam Times last Friday, he told us. He sent a statement to the media, including the Irish Independent, on Monday afternoon. Various radio programmes also picked up his statement yesterday.
The maths paper error was raised by Mr Martin on the adjournment in the Dail last night. He said that much distress and trauma had been caused to students.
It was simply extraordinary that an "error of this magnitude" should occur in a Leaving Cert paper, he said, calling for the establishment of an independent exams appeals board.
The Minister of State for Education,
Mr Bernard Allen said, on behalf of the Minister, that the error was regretted. The examiners were being instructed to take the error into account in the marking of the papers, he said. However, there was no evidence that undue trauma had been caused to students, he said.
Mr Martin said there was not enough clarity about how the examiners were to take the error into account when marking the papers.
He wanted, he said, to find out how the Department of Education intended to make allowances to deal with the error and how it would compensate students for its impact on their performance.
