Sligo Regional Technical College has strongly denied that electronic engineering students were told they had failed their first-year maths exam although the paper had not even been corrected.
The registrar, Mr Maurice Doran, responding to a Dublin newspaper report, said the paper had been marked by "qualified outside people" because the college lecturer concerned had been involved in an industrial dispute. This first marking led to a small number of students being told earlier this month that they had failed.
The papers were then re-marked by their lecturer, who had returned to work following the resolution of the dispute, and the results confirmed. Once again the same small number of students found their names missing from the list of successful students posted on the college's notice board on Monday.
Mr Doran said the RTC's main concern was that the "standard of the exam and the standard of the marking should hold their integrity, and there can be absolutely no question about that". In fact, the students had benefited from having their papers marked by two separate examiners, he said.
However, the Minister of State for Education, Mr Willie O'Dea, called on Sligo RTC to apologise to the students concerned. "There is sufficient pressure on students in the educational rat-race without this appalling behaviour. The RTC must ensure that proper marking systems are in place and they must ensure that union or staff disputes do not result in situations where examination papers are not marked."