Fewer than 20 students suspected of cheating in Junior Cert
Fewer than 20 students who sat the Junior Cert examination this year have not been given their exam results over fears they may have cheated.
The State Examinations Commission (SEC) has confirmed results are being “permanently withheld” from fewer than 10 of these students and it is still investigating the cases of fewer than 10 other students whose results have not yet been handed out.
The up to 20 cases this year followed the SEC confirming in August that 71 Leaving Cert students had their results with-held this year made up of 51 who have permanently had their exams with-held with 20 having their exam with-held pending further examination.
The numbers of Junior Cert results withheld from students this year represents a sharp decrease on the 35 results withheld in 2018.
The statistics show 11 results were withheld in 2017 and this followed 18 results withheld in 2016 and 11 in 2015.
The statistics for this year continue a trend showing that Leaving Cert students are far more like to cheat - or get caught cheating - compared to their Junior Cert counterparts.
The cheating suspicions around the 20 or so results form a tiny fraction of the 60,000 students who sat the Junior Cert this year.
A spokeswoman for the SEC stated today that on the fewer than 10 Junior Cert results that have been permanently withheld, “this includes full results withheld, or marks withheld, from candidates found to be in breach of the SEC's examinations regulations”.
She stated that “a decision to withhold a result or marks is open to appeal”.
She stated: “In addition the SEC has provisionally withheld fewer than 10 other results, on a without-prejudice basis, pending further communication with the schools and candidates concerned.”
At each exam centre for the Junior Cert, notices are placed in prominent locations warning students of the penalties for cheating.
Students are warned they are liable to have their whole examination cancelled if they bring in iPods, MP3/4 Players or mobile phones into the exam hall.
Students are also warned they risk having their exam cancelled if they aid or attempt to aid another candidate or obtain or attempt to obtain aid from another candidate.
The SEC spokeswoman said: “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.
She added: “The SEC would strongly caution any student that might be tempted to cheat that serious consequences can result. 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.”
She stated: “The most common penalty applied is the withholding of the result in the subject in question."
The spokeswoman said that suspected cheating can come to light in a number of ways - an examiner may detect similar work from more than one candidate when correcting work from the same centre; an examiner may discover memorandum, notes or paper brought in by a candidate in an attempt to gain an advantage in the examination or a superintendent may detect a candidate using prohibited items such as books, mobile phones or attempting to contact another candidate in the centre.
