Almost 50 students have results withheld for cheating

NEARLY 50 Leaving Cert students were caught cheating in their exams, meaning their results have been withheld.

The State Examinations Commission (SEC) did not provide a breakdown of exactly how the students involved were caught.

It said it was not issuing results for 48 individual exam papers and was delaying the release of 30 more, pending investigations.

Students were caught cheating in a range of subjects, including Irish, English, maths, history, geography, art, biology, design and communication graphics. There were also instances of cheating in modules for the Leaving Certificate Vocational Programme and the Leaving Certificate Applied.

Instances of cheating often come to light when an examiner notices similar work from more than one candidate from the same exam centre. Some students have also been known to leave their cheat notes inside their exam paper.

Cheating is also discovered by exam superintendents, for example, when a student attempts to smuggle notes or a mobile phone into the exam.

In most cases cheaters have their result for that exam withheld.

However, those who commit more serious breaches of exam regulations, for example, copying in more than one subject, can have all of their results withheld and they can be barred from repeating.

In cases of suspected cheating, the student and school are contacted by the SEC and the student is given the opportunity to offer a response to the evidence presented. The student can also appeal a decision to withhold their result.

- Breda Heffernan

Irish Independent