State Examinations

Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 14 October 2020

Wednesday, 14 October 2020

Ceisteanna (9)

Pauline Tully

Ceist:

9. Deputy Pauline Tully asked the Minister for Education if the State Examinations Commission will stand over the leaving certificate results of students that sit these exams in November 2020; her views on whether the leaving certificate examination in November 2020 will be comparable to previous years considering students having been out of school for several months, many were unable to finish practical examinations and are unable to take oral examinations; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [29868/20]

Freagraí ó Béal (7 píosaí cainte)

Deputy Pauline Tully

Will the SEC stand over the leaving certificate results of students who choose to sit the exams in November of this year? Can those exams be comparable to those of previous years, considering the students have been out of school for months, unable to undertake practical exams in several subjects and oral examinations and course work have not been finished?

Deputy Norma Foley

The SEC, which has operational responsibility for the State examinations, has informed me that some 2,800 candidates have applied to sit the November 2020 leaving certificate written examinations. These exams will commence on Monday, 16 November, subject to public health advice.

To ensure comparability with the calculated grades system, the examinations will be based on the normal question paper format, content, structure and duration as in previous years. Candidates will be graded on the basis of their written papers only, except for five subjects where project work had been completed prior to school closure last March and these marks will be included in the grading of these subjects.

The marking of the November examinations will rely principally on the expert judgment of the SEC chief examiner and members of the senior examining team, based on the content of the examination papers and the demands of the marking scheme. This expert judgment approach will ensure that the standards applied in the marking of these examinations will be fair and valid for these candidates who form a small subset of the overall candidature for leaving certificate 2020.

The SEC sets out the national standard for the leaving certificate and other examinations and operates independently of my Department.

Leaving certificate candidates sitting the written examinations in November who opted to receive calculated grades will be credited with the higher subject grade achieved between the calculated grade and the written examination. These results will have the same status as the leaving certificate results for previous years.

The 2020 applicants to the Central Applications Office, CAO, will have their final leaving certificate results forwarded to the CAO, using their best results of the November examinations and their calculated grades, where applicable. They will receive any relevant CAO offers that their results indicate as a deferred CAO offer for the 2021-2022 school year.

Deputy Pauline Tully

I thank the Minister. Was the main reason not to proceed with the exams in July and August that the SEC would not stand over the exams? What is different now? It would not matter whether the exams were held in July and August or are held in November and December because the same issues apply. Students have been out of school for months and have had little or no teaching. Their course work may not even have been finished in some subjects and little revision was undertaken. Project work was not completed, orals were not taken and practical exams in some subjects did not proceed. How can these exams be comparable to the leaving certificate exams in previous years?

I believe no assistance is being given to students who are undertaking these exams. The Minister did not reply to Deputy Naughten when he asked about that. I have previously asked a parliamentary question about this matter and was told that absolutely no assistance has been given even though students have been out of school since March.

Deputy Denis Naughten

I want an answer to the question I asked about what direct supports will be provided to students to prepare them for these exams, considering they have been out of school since last March. That is a basic request.

Deputy Norma Foley

I thank both Deputies. To put their questions in context, the prevailing circumstances of the pandemic at the time meant that it was not possible to house the traditional exams as they are normally experienced. The Deputies will recall that in April, the written exams were deferred until July. On 8 May, a further decision was taken because of the pandemic that it was not possible for those exams to be sat in July and the calculated grade model was introduced. That model was first mooted by students and, following consultation with partners in education, it became the agreed model. The importance that the 2020 students would be afforded an opportunity to have a pathway forward to take up whatever opportunities in life they wished was recognised. The only mechanism to do that at the time was the calculated grades process. That was the reason the calculated grades process was introduced.

As the Deputy outlined, the students who will undertake the leaving certificate exams in November have already left school and it is not possible for the schools to re-engage with them. It is in the interests of the students that they would have the opportunity to choose between the calculated grades process and the exam process, and that is why the November exams were put in place. That was a part of the original agreement in May and will be the process, going forward.

Deputy Pauline Tully

The Minister did not answer the question about the SEC. I thought that one of the reasons the exams did not proceed in July and August was that the SEC would not stand over them. It has been a tough year for the leaving certificate class of 2020. Those students have been out of school since March and did not get to sit their exams. When they got their results, there was a mixed reaction, and most felt dismay when they received their teacher-allocated grades. Many were downgraded in up to three subjects and the points for many courses went up. It has been a very tough year for those students and we need to ensure that they are not disadvantaged in any way as they go through the years because they were the 2020 leaving certificate students. We need to learn from the mistakes of this year for our current sixth year students to ensure they get the fairest possible system to sit their leaving certificate exams.

Deputy Norma Foley

I reiterate that the reason the exams did not take place at the traditional time, which would have been June, or the deferred time, which would have been July, was because of the prevailing circumstances at that time. It was not possible at the time, under public health advice, for exams to take place. For that reason, the calculated grades process and the opportunity to take the written exams in November were introduced. I am not clear on the Deputy's point. Is she asserting that the exams in November should not take place? I think it is right and proper that the opportunity is afforded to students, should they wish to avail of it, and they can then choose between the calculated grades process and written exams process, whichever benefits them most.

The marking of the November exams will rely principally on the expert judgment of the SEC chief examiner and members of the senior examining team, based on the content of the exam papers and demands of the marking scheme. This expert judgment approach will ensure that the standards applied in the marking of these examinations will be fair and valid for these candidates, who form a small subset of the overall candidature for leaving certificate 2020.