Two significant errors have been discovered in the Leaving and Junior Cert exams given earlier today. The State Examinations Commission has acknowledged the errors and said this would be taken into account when the papers were marked.

One error involved a question on the Leaving higher maths paper where an extra figure was given making two answers possible.

The second was in the Junior Cert civil, social and political education paper where the role of the Referendum Commission was described incorrectly.

Question 8a on the Leaving paper asked the students to do various calculations on a triangle.

Four figures were given associated with the triangle including an angle, 36 degrees.

In fact the question should only have had three figures and the 36 degrees was also an error according to teacher Elaine Devlin, an ASTI subject representative.

The same paper in Irish did not contain the error, Ms Devlin said.

The State Examinations Commission issued a statement this afternoon acknowledging that question 8a contained an error. It said that the chief examiner would take this into account when it came time to mark the exams.

The Junior Cert error related to an option to answer one of four questions, one of which related to the Referendum Commission.

The question described the role of the commission as “presenting both sides of a proposed change to the constitution so that the people of Ireland make informed decisions when voting”.

In fact, the commission’s role changed in 2001 and it no longer gives both sides of the argument.

The students were asked to answer three questions, and two of them took up the wrong interpretation of what the Referendum Commission does. Teachers suggested last night however that this should not affect the marks received by any student who attempted the question.