Results withheld for 47 caught cheating

LEAVING Cert students caught cheating in the exams have had results withheld by the State Examinations Commission (SEC).

The SEC has not issued results in the case of 47 individual papers and is continuing to query another 67 cases of suspected cheating.

Cheating students were caught out in Irish, history, geography, classical studies, French, art, physics, biology, accounting, business and home economics, as well as in the Leaving Certificate Vocational Programme and the alternative Leaving Certificate Applied.

In most cases, the penalty applied is the withholding of the results in the subjects involved, but for more serious breaches, such as copying in more than one subject, the ultimate sanction could be debarring a student from repeating the exam.

There are no details of the individual cases involved this year, but cheating can come to light in a number of ways. Obvious examples include the use of a mobile phone, the discovery of notes in an exam hall and plagiarism.

Under the rules, candidates cannot bring any notes, mobile phones or other electronic devices into the exam centre, except for a calculator or dictionary where permitted.

In cases of suspected cheating, the student and school are contacted by the SEC and the candidate has the opportunity to offer a response and may also appeal any decision to impose a sanction.

The SEC said yesterday that every effort is made to conclude investigations before the release of the results, but that it is not always possible, which is why no final decision has been taken in 67 cases.

- Katherine Donnelly

Irish Independent