As Leaving Cert students continue to toil away through their final year exams this week, the unfortunate incidence of cheating has raised its ugly head. Responding to the discovery of a number of cases of cheating by students in some of the earlier exams of both the Junior and Leaving Cert, the Irish Second Level Student Union (ISSU ) has called for any student who may have witnessed cheating to report it to the relevant authorities.
The ISSU also welcomed the news that the State Exam Commission is already conducting investigations into a number of reported cases. The union has also called on students not to be fearful of reporting cheating because they might be labelled as a snitch, because in the long run it is their educational qualifications that are at stake. Stricter implementation of exam rules is required by superintendents to ensure that cheating in the exams is stopped the union said.
The union has also hit out at the State Exam Commission for a number of errors in papers that students were given during exams over the course of both the Junior and Leaving Cert. The group said is was completely unacceptable that misprinted papers be distributed to students sitting the Leaving Cert accountancy paper, particularly after the errors encountered with the previous week’s Junior Certificate business studies paper. The union also hit out at the fact that standard security procedures had to be breached when the State Examinations Commission had to resort to emailing the correct version of the paper in question to schools which had received the misprinted papers. The ISSU went on to say that incidents such as these undermine the confidence in the examination system and cause unnecessary additional stress and anxiety for students who are already under demanding and challenging conditions.
