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State Examinations

Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 22 September 2020

Tuesday, 22 September 2020

Questions (482)

Paul Murphy

Question:

482. Deputy Paul Murphy asked the Minister for Education if she will consider levelling up the 2019 leaving certificate grades in the context of the 2020 leaving certificate grade inflation, to remove disadvantages for the 20,000 students that did the leaving certificate in 2019 in order to create a level playing field (details supplied); and if she will make a statement on the matter. [25469/20]

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Written answers

In a normal year, Leaving Certificate candidates receive their provisional examination results in mid-August and the final Certificate is issued in the spring of the following year following the conclusion of the appeals process. It is not possible or appropriate to reopen this process.

The decision to adopt a model of Calculated Grades for the Leaving Certificate students of 2020 was a direct result of the COVID-19 pandemic, which prevented the state from running the conventional Leaving Certificate Examinations. In the absence of the Leaving Certificate examinations in 2020 every effort has been made to make the Calculated Grades system as fair as possible for as many students as possible.

The design of the Calculated Grades model was informed by advice from a Technical Working Group comprising experts drawn from the State Examinations Commission, the Inspectorate of my Department, the Educational Research Centre and international external expertise.

The Calculated Grades model has teachers’ estimated marks at its core. It does not constrain the performance of a student to the average performance of the school. It identifies and fairly rewards stronger performing students in traditionally lower performing schools, provided schools have identified such candidates in their data. It also recognises the exceptional circumstances experienced by students in 2020 and prioritises fairness for the students of 2020 over eliminating grade inflation, while also noting that an element of grade inflation does typically occur from year to year. The Government decided that this was the fairest approach. The model allows for some grade inflation to occur but seeks to have results broadly comparable across schools and avoid uncontrolled or uneven grade inflation for students.

The CAO system for entry to higher education works on the assumption that grades obtained in the Leaving Certificate by candidates determine their points. It is on this basis that the CAO system allocates places to applicants, including those from different years.

For the 2020 CAO system to proceed to pave the way for entry to higher education for the majority of applicants within the current timelines, and in a manner than can be properly upheld, 2020 results and the results of leaving certificate examinations from previous years must be treated equally in the CAO system.

While CAO points for 2020 have by and large increased compared to 2019, the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science has worked closely with the higher education institutions to increase the number of third level places available for incoming first years, for all CAO applicants. This year the CAO received applications from candidates presenting Leaving Certificate results from 1985 onwards, not just those in 2019 and Calculated Grades results. Applicants to the CAO also present as mature applicants, those with further education qualifications, or those with other higher education qualifications.

In order to help mitigate the impact of the changes to the grading system, the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovaation and Science announced the creation of an additional 2,225 places on high-demand courses in Higher Education Institutions. This is in addition to other initiatives, such as the Human Capital Initiative, which increased the number of places available in Higher Education Institutions. These places resulted in the highest ever number of applicants receiving a CAO offers, with 53,815 CAO applicants receiving round one offers.

Some 80% of applicants received one of their top three level 8 choices in 2020, a proportion similar to other years.

Nonetheless, there were fluctuations in CAO points this year, as there are every year. These are dependent on the volume of applications, the number of applicants who meet the entry requirements, the number of places available and the grades received by applicants.

CAO applicants who have not received an offer they wish to take up may wish to look the Available Places facility, which allows for application to courses that have unfilled places remaining. Information on Available places can be found on the CAO’s website here: https://www.cao.ie/index.php?page=aboutVPL

There is also a wide range of options available in the Further Education sector, and more about these opportunities can be found on the Further Education and Training website www.thisisfet.ie.

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