Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 7 October 2020
129. Deputy Cian O'Callaghan asked the Minister for Education the steps she will take to address the issue of students who have been doubly impacted by the fact that those who received an inflated grade will retain the grades and the places in college ahead of those that through no fault of their own were incorrectly downgraded and will not receive the opportunity to have an inflated grade; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [29005/20]
Amharc ar fhreagraThe decision to adopt a model of Calculated Grades by my Department was a direct result of COVID-19, which prevented the state from running the conventional Leaving Certificate Examinations.
On 30 September, I announced that two errors had been found in the Leaving Certificate 2020 Calculated Grades process. These errors related to the way in which the coding for the process utilised Junior Cycle data.
On 03 October, following a further review of the coding by an independent third party, I announced that a further error had been identified.
These three errors were rectified, and following this, a total of 6,100 students received higher grades. These students were able to access their improved results on 03 October.
Technical details of the Calculated Grades model and standardisation process were published on the date of issue of the results and are available here:
https://www.gov.ie/en/publication/2ed9b-leaving-certificate-2020-calculated-grades-technical-reports/ .
Only the marks and grades that increased have been applied to the students’ results.
The Leaving Certificate system has a well-established practice of not reducing the marks or grades of students who have not appealed their results, but who through an appeal by another student or other systemic check are identified as somebody who received higher marks or grades than were merited.
In keeping with that principle, and mindful of the fact that the mistake was not the students’ mistake, students who received higher grades as a result of the errors in the Calculated Grades system will not be downgraded. The Leaving Certificate results of these students will remain unchanged as they do every year in these circumstances.
The CAO system operates on behalf of the higher education institutions solely on the basis of the Leaving Certificate results that candidates have been awarded.
Therefore, it is not appropriate for the CAO to make any differentiation within the group of candidates with the 2020 Leaving Certificate, just as the CAO cannot treat a 2019 Leaving Certificate candidate differently from a 2020 one. The CAO process for 2020 has been undertaken on that basis.
Furthermore, there has been an increase in the numbers of available places in colleges so that improved CAO offers can be made all candidates who would have been entitled to them. There were also extensive additional higher education places in 2020 – the most places ever offered – and the Department of Further and Higher Education and the higher education institutions are fully committed to providing further places to accommodate all students who are entitled to improved CAO offers.
As candidates receive and accept improved CAO offers arising this week, they will move from one course to another and this will create the potential for further offers to other candidates in succeeding rounds of the CAO. This will mean an overall increase in the numbers of students in third-level education and will lessen any risk of candidates not being able to participate in third-level education.
