MORE THAN 70 mistakes were made by the State Exams Commission in Leaving Cert papers over the past three years.
The damaging admission was made by the commission in response to queries from Cork Labour TD Michael McCarthy.
The acknowledgment by the commission comes after a series of controversies in recent years.
Last year’s exams in particular were a PR disaster for the commission. In the most serious incident, 24,000 Junior Cert business students were unable to work out a cash-flow question on the higher level paper because of incorrect figures.
In the 2010 Leaving Cert, more than 200 students at exam centres in south Dublin – including Blackrock College, CBC Monkstown, Clonkeen College and St Andrew’s – received an accounting paper with key sections missing.
The new figures, released yesterday, show that accounting papers have had the highest rate of errors, with 10 detected since 2009. It was followed closely by classical studies, history, biology, economics and Latin papers.
Mr McCarthy is calling for “tighter mechanisms” to reduce the incidence of errors in Leaving Cert papers.
The commission, he said, needed to explain why particular subjects were more prone to error.
“While one cannot expect the examinations process to be completely flawless, this figure is much too high and underlines how the current system is vulnerable to human error,” he added.
“If we are serious about educating the younger generation to a high standard, we must enforce a tighter quality assurance process in terms of how we prepare and plan State-run exams.
“We have a modern, 21st-century education system which we must match with a modern, 21st-century examination system.”
The majority of the 74 mistakes admitted by the commission were detected and notified to students before the exam. However, there have also been incidents where papers strewn with errors have been issued to students.
Mr McCarthy said tighter scrutiny was required to maintain public confidence in the system.
Established in 2003, the examinations commission succeeded in running the exams without any major incidents until two years ago, when a Leaving Cert English paper had to be rescheduled after the wrong paper was distributed. The commission was not responsible for the error.
Last year, a report by the commission said there was no evidence to suggest Leaving Cert students who were presented with incomplete accounting exam papers were disadvantaged by the blunder.
On the business paper error, the report said: “There have been no adverse effects on candidate outcomes.”
This year the commission has faced criticism that the Leaving Cert higher maths paper was unfair on candidates.
On RTÉ's Drivetimelast month, one maths teacher said he would struggle to complete the paper, which he described as a "shambles".
Maths teachers have called on the commission to ensure the paper is marked in a lenient fashion.
