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The government is under increasing pressure to change the appeals process for Leaving Certificate scores, as students and parents consider taking legal action after not earning enough points for preferred college options.
Schools have already written to the Department of Education this weekend expressing concern on behalf of students who feel they were treated unfairly by the standardization process when grades were calculated.
In particular, schools that have traditionally excelled in specific subjects have complained that their students fall short, as the standardization process was applied nationally without regard to the history of the school.
The Institute of Education, a fee-paying school in Dublin, has asked the Department of Education to review the grounds on which students can appeal their results.
Starting tomorrow, students will be able to review the percentage grades issued by their school and the subsequent grade issued by the calculations office after the national standardization process was applied. Students can appeal their grades, but only if there has been an obvious clerical error or problem.
The institute’s director, Peter Kearns, told the Sunday Independent that this must change.
“The department does not allow anyone to question the statistical model they have developed.
“In a school where students get results that are in line with the national dissemination of results, this model works perfectly. But in a class or subject in which everyone gets H1 or H2, the model is failing. So in schools like Gaelscoileanna or schools where they are particularly strong in another subject, the standardization process has reduced those results to link them with national norms.
“These students are deeply hurt and upset and the thing to do is fix it now and quickly. Don’t let it go to court.”
He said that his own school was severely affected in many subjects. “In French we went from obtaining four times the national average of H1 with 27%, they dragged us to 16%”. Officials in the Department of Education are said to be happy with the way standardization was applied in difficult and unprecedented circumstances.
The results have caused a CAO point bonanza and fueled inflation in most course options, with 20% of students scoring more than 500 points.
However, more than 80% of applicants for level eight courses obtained one of their first three course preferences. A government source said this was a good result, and schools were told this weekend that the appeals process will not change.
Irish Teachers Union Secretary General Michael Gillespie said the appeals process should remain the same.
“We signed up for a process because there was an emergency. The teachers stepped up and did the work, they adapted and did it much more successfully than our closest neighbors in the UK. At the end of the day, 83% of them they obtained is good because their qualification was not affected nor changed “.
The director of the National Association of Directors and Assistant Directors, Clive Byrne, said that changing the appeals process now would unravel the system designed to deal with the unique circumstances brought on by the pandemic.
“Most of the students are happy and if someone feels that they have made it particularly difficult, they will have the option to retake the exam.”
Independent Sunday
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