Inquiry as exam work for Leaving Cert found on road

THE Minister for Education hash ordered an investigation after Leaving Certificate exam work sent to her Department's exams branch was found by the roadside in a Co Roscommon village.

The parcel, containing practical work by engineering students from Kilmuckridge community school in Co Wexford, was found last Thursday by a passer by in Ballymurray, 17 miles from Athlone, its intended destination. He handed it in to the post office in Roscommon town.

After an investigation, An Post's Dublin headquarters contacted the school principal, Mr Diarmuid O'Hanlon, who rang the Department. An Post then sent the package to the exams branch.

Last night, Mr O'Hanlon said he was "not satisfied" with the manner in which the parcel had made its way to Athlone.

"The Department has told me nothing. Questions will have to be answered on this", he said.

The parcel was sent from the Kilmuckridge school on May 3rd using Iarnrod Eireann's Fastrack service. A local contractor brought it from the train station in Athlone to the Department's offices, where it was properly signed for, according to Iarnrod Eireann.

A Department spokesman was unable to confirm or deny this claim.

Practical work counts for 25 per cent of the work in the Leaving Certificate engineering exam.

Last night, the Minister, Ms Breathnach, reassured the school that the students' work had not been tampered with and would be examined in the normal way. For the first time, checks had been introduced for this year's Leaving Certificate which would reveal if students' results did not contain credit for all parts of the exam taken by them, she pointed out.

The latest loss is bound to prove a further embarrassment to the Department, coming after the fiasco over last year's Leaving Certificate art exam. On that occasion, work submitted by more than 50 students in 30 schools went missing, but the Department failed to notice.

With less than a month to go to this year's exams, the Minister has yet to publish the independent report from Price Waterhouse into the mistakes made last year. Ms Breathnach commissioned the report last January, but it publication has been delayed by legal concerns over its contents.