The State Examinations Commission (SEC) has been urged to improve the quality control checks for its papers after a number of errors over the past few years.

More than 70 mistakes have been identified in Leaving Certificate papers in the last three years, the body acknowledged, with accountancy exams the most likely to be wrong, with ten faults spotted.

Labour TD Michael McCarthy said the situation must be improved and called for better controls to be put in place to ensure such mistakes are reduced.

"If we are serious about educating the younger generation to a high standard, we must enforce a tighter quality control assurance process in terms of how we prepare and plan state-run exams," he said.

Some of the more serious mistakes last year included an accountancy paper distributed to 200 students that had key sections missing, while 24,000 Junior Certificate candidates sitting a business studies exam found a question gave incorrect data.

Recently, the SEC was also urged by teachers to be lenient when marking this year's Project Maths Higher Level Paper 1, taken by around 400 students, which was described by some educators as unfairly difficult, the Irish Independent reported.

Written by Donal Walsh
 

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