Entire class missed State examination

June 1987

A top level Department of Education probe is to be conducted in an effort to find out why an entire class failed to turn up for a Group Cert exam in Bridgetown Vocational School last week.

Fifteen girls and a similar number of boys had been due to sit the Rural Science Examination in Bridgetown, but on the day, only the boys arrived.

The students concerned said on Wednesday that they were unaware that the exam was timed for Tuesday of last week. But the school authorities insist that the full timetable was posted on the noticeboard, and the students were given general instruction on the exams before the end of term.

A Department of Education spokesman confirmed that the matter had been reported and he said responsibility for making the students aware of the timetable rested with the individual schools.

School principal, Tony Power, said he regretted the incident, but stressed that everything possible was done to ensure there was as little effect as possible on the students as a result of missing the test.

Following discussions with the Department, the girls concerned were allowed to sit the Science ‘A’ paper on Wednesday, in place of the missed Rural Science exam.

A number of them told this newspaper afterwards that they did not find it too difficult, but others complained there were items on the paper which they had not covered as part of their Rural Science course.

And they had little explanation for why they did not turn up for the original examination. While accepting that it may have been their own fault for not properly reading the timetable, a number of them said it could have been explained to them more clearly.

‘We have been told it was up to ourselves to check the exam times, but that was after we had already missed it,’ one of them said.

The issue was discussed behind closed doors at a meeting of the County VEC on Monday, and a full report on the matter is to be sent to members as soon as it is available.

The report will have to establish exactly what caused the foul-up, and attempt to find out who was responsible.