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Additional reports: Aoife Moore
Education Minister Joe McHugh admitted that the state may be opening itself up to legal action by students and parents over the decision made to predict their grades to prevent students from having to sit for their exams.
Concerns have also been raised, as the grades decided by a student’s teacher and principal will not be verified again in the appeals process, the Department of Education confirmed.
Yesterday’s historic announcement brings a certain sense of certainty for thousands of students, who have indeed been left in limbo waiting for more details on the written exams, which were due to start in late July.
However, it is far from a perfect solution, as recognized by both Mr. McHugh and the Department of Education.
Ultimately, the decision was made with a “heavy heart” in the interest of the students’ health and well-being. “The Leaving Cert is important, but the important thing is life,” said McHugh.
With the primary support of teachers in assigning grades to 61,000 students, the executive committees of the Irish Teachers Association (ASTI) and the Teachers Union of Ireland (TUI) met last night.
In a joint statement, teacher unions said members had supported plans to continue with the rescheduled tests in July, but that the health of the students was paramount.
The Department of Education confirmed that grades decided by a student’s teachers and the principal will not be reviewed again under the appeals process. While students will retain the right to appeal, the appeal will focus on whether their data was entered, transferred, and processed correctly.
Harold Hislop, chief inspector of the Department of Education, said that the grades decided by the schools cannot be reopened to maintain equity. “Simply because that would be unfair to all the candidates as well,” he said. “If that score were allowed to reopen, there would be incredible pressure on the teacher to increase that score.”
He added that there will be several layers of comprehensive checks to make sure that the procedures have really been followed fairly and that a balanced judgment about the student has dropped out of school.
Concerns were also quickly raised about biases between teachers and schools towards students, or whether parents or others could pressure teachers to approve students, a concern that the Minister himself has also expressed in the past.
Mr. McHugh also admitted that for “legitimate expectation,” the state could be subject to prosecution. “In terms of legal advice, there are vulnerabilities in this,” McHugh said. “The advice we are receiving is that, because there is a legitimate expectation that students sit with the Leaving Cert, and a solution that is different from the expectations of students for two years, there are legal vulnerabilities. It has been noted There will be a problem, but there is very clear advice, there is convincing health evidence that Leaving Cert cannot go on. “
The Department of Education examined a number of options instead of postponing exams, including distributing exams or exams that could potentially last an hour and a half. However, these options could also have presented legal liability for the same reasons, or were later considered unsafe.
Government political rivals say it is “inevitable” that the case will end in Superior Court, as parents with the means to challenge the state in court will do so when their children do not receive the grades they expected. Labor education spokesman Aodhán Ó Ríordáin called the calculated rating “problematic” and would likely ensure that those who pay fees end up with better grades than children in schools from disadvantaged areas.
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