The numbers suspected to have cheated in this year’s Leaving Certificate and Leaving Certificate Applied has almost doubled to 114 students.
This follows the State Examinations Commission (SEC) revealing that 71 Leaving Cert students found to be cheating in this year's State exams have had their results permanently withheld by the SEC.
The new figures provided by the SEC show that along with the 71 exam results from the Leaving Cert/Leaving Cert Applied permanently withheld, the SEC has confirmed that it has provisionally withheld an additional 43 Leaving Cert results, on a without prejudice basis, pending further communication with the schools and candidates concerned.
The combined 114 figure is a 90 per cent increase on the 60 suspected to have cheated at this time last year in the Leaving Cert where 39 students had their exam results permanently withheld with an additional 21 Leaving Cert results withheld, on a without prejudice basis, pending further communication with the schools and candidates.
A spokeswoman for the SEC said on Friday: “The SEC would strongly caution any student that might be tempted to cheat that serious consequences can result.”
She said: “They could lose marks or the full result in a subject; they could lose the results of the entire examination; or they could be debarred from entering for any of the State examinations for a specified period.”
On the 71 exam results permanently withheld, the SEC spokeswoman said: “This includes full results withheld, or marks withheld, from candidates found to be in breach of the SEC's examinations regulations. A decision to withhold a result or marks is open to appeal.”
The spokeswoman said: “Due to the small number of candidates involved, for privacy reasons, we do not provide any regional or gender breakdown.”
The combined 114 students found to be, or suspected to be, in breach of SEC exam regulations this year is a tiny fraction of the 60,839 candidates who received their Leaving Certificate results last week.
The SEC spokeswoman explained: "The most common penalty applied is the withholding of the result in the subject in question. Where a more serious breach of the regulations occurs such as copying in more than one subject, withholding of all results and/or debarring from repeating the examination may be applied."
Evidence
She stated: “Any incidence of suspected copying, improper assistance from another party, plagiarism or procurement of pieces prepared by another party are thoroughly investigated by the SEC and the candidate is liable to have penalties imposed as provided for in the Rules and Programme for Secondary Schools."
Cases of suspected cheating can come to light in a number of ways, according to the SEC.
These include where an examiner may detect similar work from more than one candidate when correcting work from the same centre or while marking an examination script, an examiner may discover a memorandum, notes or paper brought in by a candidate in an attempt to gain an advantage in the examination.
The SEC spokeswoman said: “The principles of natural justice are applied when following up such cases. Details of the evidence available, such as superintendent’s reports, confiscated material or items, notes or work prepared that exhibits evidence of collusion, is given to the candidate through his/her school.
“The candidate is invited to offer a response to the evidence presented and the school authorities are also free to offer comment if they consider it appropriate. The final decision is communicated in writing to the candidate again via his/her school. A decision to withhold a result is open to appeal.”
She added: “While every effort is made to conclude an investigation prior to the issue of the examination results, it is not always possible to do so. In these circumstances results are withheld on a without prejudice basis pending further communication with the schools and candidates concerned.
"In the interest of being fair to all candidates, the SEC must be satisfied that marks awarded have been gained fairly and will investigate any suggestion, suspicion or allegation of cheating or other impropriety in relation to the examinations.
“This is essential in order to uphold the integrity of the Irish State examinations system and to underpin equity and fairness within the system in order to enable all candidates to display their achievements on an equal footing.”
