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A student from Jobstown, Dublin, who attended the Leeson Street Institute of Education for the last two years of her studies, has called for a more comprehensive appeals system for those who are unhappy with their calculated Leaving Certificate scores.
Aisling Sun (18), scored 488 points on the Exit Certificate, but expected to get more than 520.
On Monday, she learned that her teachers had awarded her 533 points, before this total was lowered for her final calculated grade. She is taking a course at UCD that was her seventh CAO pick.
He said the friends he made at the € 7,500 a year Institute came from all walks of life and from all over Dublin.
Claims that the model used by the Department of Education to calculate Leaving Certificate scores led to unfair results for students who attended schools that traditionally produce higher scoring students are likely to be included in the Superior Court challenges that are expected this week.
It is expected that it will be argued that the model used by the department led to lower grades given by teachers in schools with a tradition of high marks than for the general student body.
The variety of students at the institute “was crazy,” said Ms Sun, who described her family as “middle to lower class.”
Accommodated
“I had friends who were extremely well off, but also friends who were similar to my situation and not as financially comfortable as others,” he said. The Irish Times. “It is not as uniform as people might think.”
He had been a student from elementary school through the transition year in high school at his local school, “but I lost the motivating atmosphere after being there for so long. Maybe he just needed a change of environment ”.
She sought to study at the institute and then asked her mother if she could go there. “She said of course if this is what you want.”
“My parents worked very hard and long hours to make sure we could get that extra help in our education. I am very grateful for them, for having made me come true. She has an older brother.
As it stands, students can appeal their results, but the process deals with finding errors in the “transmission and processing of student data” as opposed to the decision on grades that was ultimately made.
Ms. Sun said that she would like the appeals system to be expanded, so that it could take other issues into account.
In an email he sent to several councilors over the weekend, he said he was asking them “if it is possible for them to contact the [department] on my behalf and on behalf of many other students disappointed in this year’s Leaving Cert by a strong appeals system. Or at least more indulgence with the current one. “
He said he made a conscious decision to move from St Paul’s High School in Greenhills to the institute in hopes of better learning opportunities and better outcomes.
“I spent most of my time at the institute taking classes from 8.30 am to 4.30 pm and then proceeded to study at night until 9 pm, even studying at school on weekends.
Gutted
“I have devoted hours and hours to my studies at this school and I am devastated with the grades they gave me.”
He said he knew the financial pressure of going to the Institute would put his parents on.
“We are a middle to lower class family. My parents moved their lives here 20 years ago from China to seek a better life, and they always told me that they would give me everything I needed to make sure I could have the future I wanted for myself. “
“They are incredibly hardworking and I feel overwhelming sadness that I have not been able to succeed for them.”
She said the 488 points she had been awarded “don’t really represent me” and that she felt powerless and “stuck.”
She said The Irish Times that when he saw the results on Monday that his teachers had assigned him, “it put my heart at peace. He let me know that my teachers did believe in me. “
The last week or fortnight had been very tense and pressurized, he said. “Honestly, it has been a roller coaster ride.”
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