Exam paper mistakes "unacceptable"

Education Minister Louis Galea said yesterday that mistakes such as those made in the SEC English Language (Paper A) exam paper of February 4 were "unacceptable."

The minister was replying to a parliamentary question by Labour MP Carmelo Abela who pointed out that in the second comprehension (passage 2) the lines were marked 40 to 65 when there were not so many lines.

Question number two referred to lines 5, 11, 15 and 16 which did not exist in that text.

Question three referred to line five, which also did not exist in the text.

Dr Galea said that his verifications with the MATSEC board showed that the board had engaged an experienced person to ensure that the exam paper would not have mistakes. The board was considering what steps it could take over these shortcomings.

In another question, Mr Abela asked the minister to confirm that in the SEC accounts exam there was a question which could not be worked out because a figure was left out. He also asked whether the compulsory section included questions which were of an advanced level and not SEC level.

Replying, Dr Galea said that whenever there was a mistake in an exam paper and this was detected before the exam started, the candidates were informed in writing by the invigilators and a correction was handed out. The candidates were asked to confirm in writing that they had been notified of the mistake and been given a corrected version. This was the procedure which was followed in the SEC accounts exam and all the questions, therefore, could be worked out from the beginning of the exam.

Dr Galea said all the questions were appropriate for the SEC level and all of them had been on the syllabus.