Allegations that an ICT lecturer at the Malta College of Arts, Science and Technology gave his students the answers of an examination papers have been investigated and the case has been referred to a board of discipline.

The Education Ministry said that an MCAST internal auditor, responsible for quality assurance during the course, noted that the students’ answers to the examination closely resembled the model answers prepared for the lecturers as a guide for the scripts’ marking.

When the director of the ICT Institute spoke to the lecturer concerned, the lecturer said he had had distributed the paper containing the answers together with the paper containing the questions to the students in class by mistake. He said he realised what he had done a few minutes later and withdrew the paper containing the answers.

However, when the institute director spoke to the students, they gave a different version of events.

So, in consultation with the director of the ICT institute, the principal of Mcast decided to refer the case to a board of discipline according to the collective agreement.

The board has to establish facts and make recommendations.

The principal denied he had been been contacted by anyone at any time to refrain from taking the appropriate action.

The case had in fact already been passed to a disciplinary board.