Report on lost Leaving Cert art is held up by legal issues

THE publication of a consultants' report on errors made in the marking of last year's Leaving Cert art exam is being held up by legal concerns.

It is understood that the final text of the report by consultants Price Waterhouse is now being checked by lawyers amid concerns that some of its findings could be open to legal challenge.

The consultants' own legal advisers have stressed to them that they must be seen to have adopted fair procedures in their investigations and in completing their report.

The Minister for Education, who is expected to publish the report later this month, hired Price Waterhouse in January after revelations that about 50 students were not marked for all their work in last year's exam.

In most cases, this was because their work in the craft work component of the exam had gone missing. Cross checks in the Department of Education had failed to pick this up.

Some 49 students in 29 schools received upgrades when the errors were discovered, but by then at least eight students had missed third level places last autumn because of the mistakes.

There is still confusion about a claim made by the Fianna Fail education spokesman, Mr Micheal Martin TD, last week that the missing artwork of 14 students in the worst affected school, the Ursuline convent in Sligo, had turned up in a local factory.

Mr Martin said yesterday he was seeking further information from his sources, who have up to now declined to name the factory involved.

Both the Department of Education and An Post say they have no record of a parcel having been sent back to An Post two weeks ago, and then forwarded to the Department's exams branch in Athlone, as Mr Martin has claimed.

The opposition spokesman has tabled further questions in the Dail on the matter next week. "It a seems inconceivable that such a bulky package could have disappeared off the face of the earth," he said.

The Department now says it never received a parcel containing the craft work when it was first sent last year. This appears to contradict an earlier assertion made on at least two occasions to the parents of the Ursuline students and an An Post official that it had received the craft work sent from the Sligo school.

What is clear is that the parcel was brought by the Ursuline convent's art teacher to her local post office in early June 1995. It was carefully packaged and was correctly addressed. She kept the receipt of posting and passed this to An Post when it was investigating the disappearance of the parcel.

An Post says it has no record of handling the parcel, but has no reason to believe it was not delivered. A spokesman pointed out that the Department only sought the help of An Post nine months after the parcel was sent. An Post only keeps paperwork for three months.

The errors may never have been discovered without the persistence of the Ursuline school, which felt its students had been under marked. One student's mother wrote to the Department last October seeking information about all components of her daughter's marks, but her letter was mislaid and it was only when it was sent again in November that the mistakes were discovered.