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THE Government has come under fire for its radical Covid-19 move canceling the Leaving Cert for the first time in its history and getting teachers to hand out predicted grades to their students.
The controversial new Calculated Grades System has already seen parents and students across Ireland contact teachers begging for good grades.
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The new program is also vulnerable to legal challenges from students and has been deemed “unfair” by opposition parties as it could see disadvantaged students given lower grades due to school profiling.
Education Minister Joe McHugh has been forced to postpone the exams after the National Public Health Emergency Team advised that they could not be held safely during the coronavirus outbreak.
Taoiseach Leo Varadkar had previously promised that the exams would go ahead “by hook or by crook” but the Government has been forced to back track and call them off.
The Leaving Cert was due to get under way in June but was pushed back to a start date of July 29 following the pandemic.
The Department of Education explored a series of ways to hold the exams safely during the outbreak, including shortened papers with one and a half hour test times as well as holding one exam per day.
MADE DECISION
However, these plans were scrapped after they were deemed unworkable or unsafe, with Minister McHugh officially announcing the cancellation of the Leaving Cert today after coming under severe pressure from students to provide clarity and assurance.
Speaking at a press conference in Dublin, he said: “I have made every effort to run the 2020 Leaving Certificate as close as possible to the way the examinations were originally intended to be held.
“My desire had been to allow students to undertake the written and practical examinations in July and August but I have compelling evidence, based on medical advice and other assessments, that the Leaving Certificate examinations cannot be held in a reliable and valid manner, nor in a way that would be equitable for students. ”
I added: “The reality of the impact of Covid-19 has led to a decision that has never happened in our country before. I fully appreciate the magnitude of this issue, for the students and their families, for the teachers and for school principals.
“This decision is made with the best interests of students at heart. I have a responsibility to find a fair way to address the disadvantage that some students are facing and the impact a lack of time in school has had in recent weeks.
“The system being put in place will allow a young person to progress to the next stage of their life in a timely fashion.
“The fairest and most equitable way to do that in the current circumstances is to offer students the option of calculated grades for the 2020 Leaving Certificate but also to guarantee them the right to sit the examinations at a later stage when it is safe to hold them in the normal way.
PLAN C
“The decision has to be taken now to remove the anxiety that many students have been experiencing over how the exams would look later in the summer.”
Minister McHugh said the new system was the Government’s “Plan C” and explained that it would be unfair to ask 61,000 students to put their lives on hold for a year and wait for the virus to disappear to hold the exams.
The Calculated Grades System will begin with each teacher giving an estimated score to their students along with a ranking compared to their class mates.
The teacher’s grade will be based on previous class work, tests, mock exams and their professional opinion of how well the student may do in the real exam.
Other teachers in the school who teach the same subject will work together to finalize the school’s complete marks.
The school principal will then review the grades awarded by the teachers and sign off on them before sending the data to the Department of Education.
The Department will then apply a national standardization – which may change a student’s grade – before they officially send out the results to students, which is expected to happen in August.
An appeal process will be put in place which will enable students to see all the work that has gone into giving them their grade. However, they will not be able to appeal the teacher’s decided grade.
Any student who is unhappy with their result in any subject can opt to sit a real exam in the future when it is deemed safe to hold the tests.
Teachers have also been warned not to discuss their grades with any students.
Mental and physical health is not at risk
by Oscar Scattergood
STUDENT, 17, IN COLAISTE NA SCEILGE, CO KERRY
I WELCOME the Government’s decision to cancel the Leaving Cert, with the replacement being predicted grades.
The Government has finally listened to our voices and has made the decision not to put our mental and physical health at risk.
However, with the announcement comes many queries that must be answered as soon as possible. Some of which are. . .
Will the full marked orals and practical work, as mentioned in March, be included in the final grade?
For people doing history and other projects postponed until July, will we have to do these projects or will they be predicted as well?
For those of us wishing to go onto third-level education this year, will we be able to complete these exams without having to miss a year of college if we’re unhappy with our predicted grade?
Will the CAO point requirements be lowered for college courses to accommodate for the slight inaccuracy that predictive grading involves?
There are many more issues.
This is a time for all of us to celebrate, while being cautious of why it was canceled. The Government still has a lot of finishing touches to put onto this decision to make sure the grade we receive is fair and accurate.
This process will be long and exhausting, but I’m definitely much happier and am already feeling a lot of relief mentally due to today’s announcement.
SCHOOLS STRUGGLING
The Irish Sun understands that parents and students have already started to write to teachers across the country begging them for good grades.
One teacher in a Dublin school told us: “My colleagues have got emails from students and even their parents saying things like,‘ I need a C3 at least in French to get my course, can you please make sure I get that? ’
“Our school has also been struggling to get Irish teachers so what happens to those students who haven’t had a full-time teacher over the past year? Or what happens to students who opt to study an extra subject like music outside of school? How are they graded?
“The national standardization is also very worrying. The sixth years we have now are the best we’ve probably ever had in the school. So when they are standardizing them are they going to be dragged down because of previous years ’results?”
Another teacher revealed: “A teacher in my school got an email already saying, ‘Miss, you better pass me on this.'”
The Association of Secondary Teachers Ireland and the Teachers Union of Ireland’s executive committees met separately last night to discuss the Government decision. In a joint statement, they said: “Both unions welcomed plans announced by the Minister last month to hold the Leaving Certificate written exams in late July / August.
“However, both TUI and ASTI have emphasized at all times that the health and safety of students, teachers and the wider public must be paramount.”
Fear is teachers might be biased
by Aishling Flannery
CO CLARE STUDENT, 19, AT LIMERICK TUTORIAL COLLEGE
JOE McHugh has done his best to tackle this issue under these circumstances.
This year is like no other and because of this, no solution would have suited everyone. I understand they want to keep us safe but the majority of students, like myself, would have peaked in June.
An average of my class tests would have been lower than if I sat the Leaving Cert.
Studying at home has proven to be challenging and if it was drawn out to July I think many students would have lost motivation.
I know there’s not much they could do but I just feel I would have done better in a written exam in a normal year.
I just fear some teachers may be more biased towards certain students. I myself am rather shy in class and as a result the teachers may not know me as well as others and grade unfairly as a result.
It’s also a tough situation as what if I am unhappy with the predicted grades I have been given? I know the Minister said there may be an exam in autumn but does that mean we have to keep studying until then just in case?
I am a repeat student. I did not get my first choice last year and thought if I moved to a grind school this year it would help me get my course. Now I’m not sure, so it is quite disheartening.
Our teachers have been giving us work to do every day from 9 to 5 since March when schools closed. Before that we studied 9 to 9 in school every day! It’s been tough.
I know there’s a pandemic and the Leaving Cert seems like such a silly thing to worry about, but for the 60,000 it’s their world at the moment.
POLITICIANS CONCERNED
Sinn Fein slammed the Government’s plan as unfair and said they believe profiling could see students from disadvantaged schools given lower grades.
The party’s Donnchadh O Laoghaire said: “I am particularly concerned at the idea of school profiling. I am worried that children in schools that suffer from disadvantage will suffer from this measure and they will not get the grades they deserve.
“The predicted grades are also not officially a Leaving Cert, and we need more clarity on what this will mean for students who don’t go on to third-level. The Minister has acknowledged that there are ‘legal vulnerabilities’ about this approach. ”
Aontu leader Peadar Toibin claimed that the new system will punish students who want to sit their exams later in the year by holding them back from college this year.
He said: “It’s significant that the actual Leaving Cert won’t be held until November now. This means that the results will not be available until the new year.
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Consequently those who choose that route will miss college and university completely this year. This is a significant penalty for those who feel that they have not been fairly treated. ”
The Greens ’Catherine Martin welcomed the Government’s announcement but said the crisis put a spotlight on the inflexibility of the exams and on the need for urgent reform.
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