A NUMBER of English teachers contacted Exam Times to complain about the lack of a short story question on the second higher level English paper.

One teacher said an option of a short story or novel was offered on all papers since 1992 and was also present in all five sample papers. Another said his students had studied six short stories instead of a novel and they were "badly caught out".

In a letter to the Department of Education's chief examiner, Mr Mick Sheridan, an English teacher at St Killan's Community School, Bray, wrote that his students had not done a novel since Since the Ghost of Thomas Kempe in first year. "This is because I recall being assured at in service in 1991-2 that short stories would be examined

He has requested that the omission be pointed out to all examiners at the marking conference and that students whose answer on fiction question two is clearly at variance with the standard of the rest of their answer should be looked at sympathetically.

However, a spokesman for the Department said there may have been a slightly different pattern to the paper this year but it was in line with the syllabus.