Examination Recount

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32126, 23 October 1969, Page 14

Examination Recount

Sir, —In November I, and many others, will be sitting School Certificate. There will naturally be people who fail, some by a considerable margin and some by only a few marks. I have been informed that a person can apply for a recount. The sum of $2.40 must accompany-the application. I do not like the price much, but my chief concern is that one, and only one, subject is recounted. If a person has, for example, 48 per cent in English and 49 per cent in Geography, still only one subject is recounted. Surely, if one pays $2.40 for each recount, two or even three subjects could be recounted. In asking my friends and teachers, I still have not received a good answer. Just that; that’s how it is. If a pass into the sixth form depends on a total of about five marks could not the principal ask for a little leniency? —Yours, etc., EXAM CANDIDATE. October 16, 1969.

[Mr F. N. Wylde, district senior inspector of secondary schools, replies: “This year there will be approximately 240,000 separate examination papers in the School Certificate examination. The elaborate system of check marking of the original papers ensures that there is little divergence in marking standards. AU recounts are carried out by the chief examiner or panel leader. Because of the sheer volume of work which would be involved, the right to apply for a re-mark is limited to one subject.”]