Rad­hi­ca Sookraj

Min­is­ter in the Min­istry of Ed­u­ca­tion Clifton De Coteau as­sured yes­ter­day that there was no leak of the Eng­lish A CSEC pa­pers, say­ing all ex­am­i­na­tion sheets were tam­per-proof and ac­count­ed for. How­ev­er, he not­ed that the Ed­u­ca­tion Min­istry was in­ves­ti­gat­ing why the couri­er failed to de­liv­er the ex­am­i­na­tion pa­pers to stu­dents on time.

De Coteau first raised the is­sue while ad­dress­ing farm­ers at a pan­el dis­cus­sion host­ed by the Table­land Pineap­ple Farm­ers As­so­ci­a­tion. "There was no such leak­age of the pa­per, but we are do­ing in­ves­ti­ga­tions," De Coteau said. How­ev­er, ques­tioned fur­ther af­ter the meet­ing, De Coteau said stu­dents from nine cen­tres had to write the ex­am two hours lat­er than sched­uled be­cause the pa­per ar­rived late.

"We lat­er called CXC and we got per­mis­sion to pho­to­copy the pa­per. There was no com­pro­mise of the ex­am in any way, be­cause it was tam­per-proof. We start­ed the ex­am­i­na­tions about 11.30 am," De Coteau added. He said: "The big ques­tion now is why the ex­am­i­na­tions were not de­liv­ered on time. We are talk­ing about some 20,000 pupils af­fect­ed. Al­though we put con­tin­gency mea­sures in place, we must in­ves­ti­gate why this hap­pened."

He said the couri­er had been de­liv­er­ing ex­am­i­na­tion pa­pers since 2008. How­ev­er, if it is found that the couri­er was in­ef­fi­cient, a new one would have to be hired, he said. Among the schools which re­ceived late ex­am pa­pers were Vish­nu Boys' Hin­du school, Cunu­pia High School and Lak­sh­mi Girls' High School.