Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 3 March 2021
495. Deputy Aodhán Ó Ríordáin asked the Minister for Education if it is planned that leaving certificate results will be issued in time for the 30 August 2021 deadline for UCAS in order to ensure that students with a UK third-level offer will be able to take their place; the efforts being made to ensure applicants to UK courses do not lose out on places as a result of any delays; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [11957/21]
Amharc ar fhreagraOn 17 February, I confirmed that Leaving Certificate 2021 examinations will proceed and students will also have the alternative option of applying for grades accredited by the State Examinations Commission (SEC), to be known as SEC-Accredited Grades.
This decision follows intensive engagement with education stakeholders bilaterally and through the Planning for State Examinations 2021 Advisory Group and sub-group.
This decision ensures for every student a method to assess their learning and attainment at the end of their post-primary education and to progress to higher and further education, and the world of work.
Putting in place both the examination and a corresponding measure of SEC-Accredited Grades is essential to ensuring a fair system, having regard to the extraordinary circumstances of the pandemic and the loss of learning that has occurred for this group of students due to the interruption of in-person teaching and learning during the periods of school closure.
Under the SEC-Accredited Grades process, students will have the opportunity to opt to receive an SEC-Accredited Grade. They can also opt to sit the Leaving Certificate Examination. Students will opt into these processes on a subject by subject basis. Where students opt for SEC-Accredited Grades and the examinations they will be credited with the better of their results from the two processes, on a subject by subject basis.
Students will receive the combined outcomes of their SEC Accredited Grades and their examinations (if they choose to sit examinations) at the same time. Where, in any subject, a student has also sat the examination, he/she will be credited with the better of the two results.
It is intended that the results of the Leaving Certificate 2021 process will issue to students within the required timeframe for CAO admission to higher and further education. My Department will engage with the Department of Higher and Further Education, Research, Innovation and Science in this regard. It is also intended that the results will also issue within the timeframe currently required by UCAS for entry to higher education in the UK.
