Junior Cert geography: The State exams body faced further embarrassment yesterday after it admitted giving an incorrect sample answer on a Junior Cert geography paper.
The higher-level paper, taken by almost 40,000 students, provided a sample answer to one of four ordnance survey questions. But the answer given was incorrect because of what the exams commission calls a typographical error in the paper.
The question at issue is worth just three out of 150 marks to students. However, some parents and teachers complained that students could have been thrown by the error.
Last night, the commission stressed that no student would suffer because of the error. It appears that all students will either be given full marks for the question or the question will be ignored in the overall marking scheme.
The commission was also criticised in some quarters for an ordinary-level paper which appeared to suggest that almost half of all women work in nursing, with a quarter of their male counterparts working as a mechanic. But the commission said the question was not intended to be taken at face value. It was designed to test a candidate's knowledge of a pie-chart in geography, it said.
Last week, the commission was forced on the defensive because of its failure to delete a Junior Cert English essay question on travelling on a school bus - despite the recent Co Meath tragedy.
The error in yesterday's higher-level paper related to question 18 (d) which identified the given co-ordinate as an earthwork. The correct answer was a nature reserve. "Most of my students spotted the mistake and corrected it on their paper but many students may have been thrown by this error," said Rockbrook teacher and skoool.ie subject expert Jackie Brennan.
The paper was otherwise described as "fair", with one or two tricky questions. The vast majority of Junior Cert students in geography take higher level. In all, some 39,383 sat the higher-level paper.
In a statement last night, the commission acknowledged the paper contained a typographical error. It said: "The State Examinations Commission operates within the core principle that candidates cannot be disadvantaged as a result of an issue arising within a question paper that is outside the candidate's control.
The marking scheme for this subject will be developed by the chief examiner and team of examiners and will be adapted to ensure that no candidate will be disadvantaged as a result of this error. The marking scheme will, as usual, be published along with those in all other subjects after the issue of results in mid-September. Candidates also have the option of appealing their results."
