KEY POINTS:
A hunt for the person who wrote "Good one dick!!" and "You useless sack of poo" on National Certificate in Educational Achievement exam papers is zeroing in on a temporary postal worker.
The Qualifications Authority has apologised to Christchurch students who received exam papers with rude remarks written on them.
New Zealand Post, which collates exam papers, puts them in envelopes and delivers them under a contract to NZQA, thinks the mystery scribe may be one of its temporary staff rather than an exam marker.
"We have temporary staff who are brought in to help in this work and we think we know who may have been responsible," New Zealand Post spokesman Richard MacLean said.
The Sunday Star-Times reported that when 17-year-old Seanjay Nerayen saw "You useless sack of poo" scrawled across his calculus exam paper he thought his mates were playing a joke on him.
His statistics exam paper, which arrived at his Christchurch home in the same sealed envelope on Thursday, had "Nice one mate" written on it in the same blue felt pen. He failed to achieve in calculus.
Earlier his classmate Josh Potter complained that his media studies paper arrived with the words "Good one dick!!" written across it in the same blue felt pen.
New Zealand Post said it was working with NZQA on an investigation into the comments and the matter was being treated seriously.
NZQA is arranging to have the papers concerned returned to the authority as soon as possible and is asking any students with inappropriate comments on their papers to get in touch.
- NZPA
