By Tom Barton

13 Aug, 2002

Page 5

BLUNDERING exam officials last night apologised to North Wales students after AS papers were tossed away in a bin.

Sociology students from Ruthin are among hundreds affected by the blunder, with examination results due on Thursday.

Trouble began when their exam scripts were sent to the wrong address by the Oxford, Cambridge and RSA Examinations Board - where they were thrown away without being marked.

Now 23 sixth formers from Ysgol Brynhyfryd face an agonising few days as they wait to hear whether their results suffer because of the mistake.

They will now have to receive a grade calculated on the basis of their performance during the year, rather than on how they did in the exam.

Sixth former Abby O'Hara, 17, feels the board has let the students down, and the error could even have an effect on future careers.

'They say we'll have an estimated grade, but no one really works to their optimum during the year - for their assignments and for the mocks - but you do put in 110pc for the final exam, and I just feel all that extra work is wasted,' she said.

'It's such a careless thing to do,' said Abby.

The scripts for the Sociological Research Skills paper were posted by the exam board to the wrong address, and arrived at the house of the examiner's neighbour.

But rather than returning the package to the board, the neighbour threw the 293 papers from around England and Wales in the bin, leaving the students without marks for one-third of the year's hard work.

Ruthin student Meleri Roberts said she would have to either re-sit the paper, or accept a potentially lower grade.

'I worked very hard, I really tried my best for this exam,' she said.

'I don't see why my marks should be lower than other people, and I think it's unfair that I might have to re-sit it alongside the other work that I'm going to be doing next year,' she added.

At a time when applications to study at university are soaring, and with A level results expected to be higher than ever, Meleri is worried that this mistake could affect her chance of admission to a good university.

'I want to go to university, and if this lowers my grades then it could make it harder to get into a good one,' she said.

Eleri Jones, head teacher at Ysgol Brynhyfryd, said the school was appalled such an error could happen.

'We're extremely disappointed that after all the hard work of the students and their tutors that these examination papers will not be marked.

'The board has assured us that the candidates won't be disadvantaged, but clearly we'll look carefully at the results when they are released on Thursday,' she said.

A spokesman for OCR last night apologised to students at the school, and said that the exam board would do what it could to rectify the situation.

'We feel for students that have done the exam and had their work disappear,' he said.

He added that the loss of the papers would be taken into account when students' marks for the course are calculated.

The spokesman added the board had given the school a full refund, and would allow the students to re-sit the exam free of charge if they choose to do so.

Clwyd West MP Gareth Thomas said: 'It's not good enough. I appreciate that accidents can happen, but in the case of posting exam scripts most people would expect a very high standard of care to be used.' Tom McGarry, president of National Union of Students Cymru, said: 'It is quite a disgraceful mistake of the examining board to have sent papers that are of such importance to people to the wrong address.

'People often don't realise how important these exams are: a single percentage point can affect whether you go to your first choice institution.'