By Graeme Cleland

A GROUP of secondary school pupils in Dundee were left scratching more than just their heads during an exam—after they were attacked by a swarm of ants.

The youngsters were sitting their Higher English exam in the former Rockwell High School building on Friday due to the rebuilding work going on at their own school, Grove Academy.

However, soon after the exam started the pupils had more than just the test paper to contend with—as ants began crawling all over their shoes, hands and desks.

The mother of one of the pupils who sat the exam—who did not wish to be named—was outraged at the conditions the youngsters had to endure.

“I couldn’t quite believe it when my daughter told me what had happened,” she said. “I actually didn’t think it could have been that bad and called the school to check.

“They confirmed there had been an ant infestation and exterminators had been called out to deal with it.”

The concerned mother said she was even more amazed to learn that the school had known about the problem for a week but had done nothing to tackle it.

“I don’t understand why they didn’t do something about it earlier, why was it not sorted out?

“It really angered me because it was the first exam for a lot of the youngsters and they were already anxious about it.

“Having to put up with conditions like that would affect anyone’s concentration and it might have an effect on people’s results.”

The woman said she would be demanding the Scottish Qualifications Authority take the incident into account if the marks of the class were seriously affected.

She said it was not the first time the Grove youngsters had their examinations affected.

During their preliminary exams there was no heating in the exam room and the pupils had to wear their coats to keep warm.

Then when heaters were brought in it was too warm, and water had to be given out to those sitting the exams.

“You can’t really blame the school for these problems but the education department should never have allowed these things to happen,” the woman added.

When asked about the ant attack by The Courier a Dundee City Council education department spokesman said, “A minor problem was reported at the building and it was dealt with quickly.”