Mother critical of State Examinations Commission policy after son misses out

A Co Clare mother has

sharply criticised what she calls the injustices of the Leaving Cert system after her son missed out on his dream third-level course by a quarter of a percentage point.

Last August Leaving Cert student Frankie Martyn missed out on securing a course in biomedical science at NUIG after being denied an A1 in biology despite being only one quarter of a percentage point off 90 per cent.

The student remained on 89.75 per cent in biology due to a State Examinations Commission (SEC) policy of not rounding up percentages in the Leaving Cert. This resulted in him securing 535 points instead of the 540 required to enter the biomedical science course.

A student at St Joseph's in Spanish Point, Frankie achieved three A2s in the science subjects of biology, physics and chemistry, along with an A1 in English. His mother Carmel said yesterday: "Frankie is very academic and worked very hard to achieve his dream. However, because of a system which was brought in in 1969, he was denied his chance.

“If a student gets 89.75 per cent on a paper, clearly it should be rounded up.”

Ms Martyn described the system as “obsolete”.

Appeal

Frankie took his second choice course in NUIG of biopharmaceutical chemistry in the hope that his appeal against his Biology mark would allow him change course.

However, Frankie – now working as a barman in west Clare – dropped out of the course in November as he did not like it and also failed in his appeal against his Leaving Cert biology result. Ms Martyn said Frankie hoped to go to Trinity College Dublin next September to study radiation therapy. “However, because I now have incurred half-registration in 2014 and will have to pay full fees in 2015 I am not sure if I will be able to afford it.

“I feel an injustice has been done to my son and possibly to many other students in this country.”

Ms Martyn said she had met Minister for Education Jan O’Sullivan “and she stated that I was right. How can a person at the helm of the Department tell me that I am right and yet do nothing about it?”

When this was put to the Department of Education, a spokeswoman said that following Ms Martyn’s representation, an inquiry was made to the SEC. The spokeswoman said: “The SEC stated that marks are neither rounded up or down.”