Poetic injustice (From Barry And District News)

Poetic injustice

THE HEADMASTER of Barry Comprehensive School has slammed an examination blunder by the WJEC which he believes cannot be resolved.

Barry students were left bewildered last week when they sat their GCSE English Literature (Higher) exam paper.

A mistake by the Welsh Joint Education Committee (WJEC) meant lines were chopped from the bottom of a poem - Lyndsey MacRae's The Richest Poor Man In The Valley - which pupils were asked to analyse.

The problem, blamed on a printing error, was not spotted before the exam.

Despite assurances from the WJEC board that no pupil will be penalised for the error, head teacher at Barry Comprehensive, David Swallow, is not convinced.

He told the News: "We are extremely concerned to ensure none of our students are disadvantaged.

"It seems some schools had a mixture of correct and incorrect papers and were allowed extra time as they had correct versions faxed through to them.

We were not in that position and have written to the board expressing our concerns."

Mr Swallow said he cannot see how papers will be marked fairly. He added: "A number of worried pupils and parents have come to me.

"I cannot see how the situation can be resolved.

If all the papers were cancelled, you have candidates who'd felt confident after the two-and-a-half hour exam facing the ordeal again.

Plus there would be problems trying to timetable it.

"All question papers are taken back, so it will be impossible to find out which students sat the incomplete questions.

Even if the examiners take that one question into consideration, it will doubtless have a knock-on effect.

Students who spent time trying to make sense of the poem to the detriment of remaining questions will be disadvantaged."

Students Joel Hutton, James Connor, Richard Beard and Michael Dowers all sat the exam.

While they still have confidence in the WJEC, they are disappointed this could happen. James said: "We spent a long time going over poetry, and were taught some could have abrupt endings.

So it wasn't until afterwards we knew something was wrong. It is annoying."

A WJEC spokesman said: "The WJEC deeply regrets this error and will ensure that no candidate is disadvantaged by this omission.

All markers will be alerted, and all available evidence considered before final grades are awarded.

The WJEC is also investigating how such a random error occurred."