The State Examinations Commission (SEC) has operational responsibility for the operation of the certificate examinations.
One of the key objectives of the SEC is to provide an examinations system of the highest possible quality. The aspiration of any examining body, including the SEC, is to preside over a system that is completely error free. However, it is recognised, across the examination sector, that this will always be an aspiration rather than a completely achievable goal. In the 2013 State certificate examinations, a number of mathematics examination papers contained undetected errors which had not come to light before the examination and which had the potential to impact on candidate answering. The SEC has accepted that level of error in the 2013 examination papers was unacceptably high and has apologised to the candidates affected. Specific measures were implemented in the marking process by the SEC so that candidates were not disadvantaged as a result of these errors. In addition to its current quality assurance measures, the SEC will, in future, take the following additional steps to minimise the risk of error. It will: - adopt a more formalised approach to strategic work-force planning; review the personnel structures and protocols for paper preparation in each subject; analyse all post print errors with a view to identifying patterns and underlying causes.
Regarding the request that the time allocation on the paper be specific, I am advised by the SEC that the time allocation for the examination is printed on the front of the examination paper and also on the published timetable for the certificate examinations and does not change annually. Each Leaving Certificate Mathematics paper is of two and a half hours' duration and there are no plans to change this. All examinations are designed so as to be readily answerable by candidates in the allotted time.
