Leaving Cert: No ‘cliff edge’ drop in grades next year, says Foley

There will not be a “cliff edge” drop in the profile of students’ Leaving Cert grades next year, Minister for Education Norma Foley has said.

Instead grade inflation is set to reduce in “stages” over the coming years in order not to disadvantage Leaving Cert students competing for college places against candidates with results from previous years.

Ms Foley was speaking in Killarney after 60,000 Leaving Cert candidates received their results on Friday, which on aggregate match last year’s record-breaking high grades.

All students’ marks were artificially inflated by an average of 5.6 per cent in order to bring them into line with 2021 grades. This in turn pushed about half of students grades which they achieved in the exams upwards.

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[ LIVE: Irish Times Leaving Cert results 2022 helpdesk ]

[ Leaving Cert 2022: Grades adjusted upwards in effort to tackle grade inflation ]

[ Leaving Cert 2022: University president calls for end to grade inflation ]

Ms Foley also confirmed that there will be adjustments to next year’s State exams at Junior Cycle and Leaving Cert level – such as greater choice of questions – to take account of disruption to students’ learning during the pandemic

These changes will be based on those announced in August 2021, and include issuing earlier briefs for course work, providing a wider choice of questions and reducing preparatory work for practical exams.

The changes, however, will not go as far as the adjustments provided for the class of 2022, which provided even greater choice and fewer questions.

In relation to the class of 2022, Ms Foley said that while this year’s high grades match those from last year, there is no evidence of additional grade inflation.

“There is no [additional] grade inflation this year comparable to last year. Students were very clear that they should receive results on a par with the previous year in the interests of fairness. That was achieved for them.”

In relation to future exam years, she said authorities will consider how to reduce grade inflation gradually over the coming years. “In terms of what we will be doing going forward, a body of work will begin now, and the State Examinations Commission will be charged with reviewing the situation and compiling the data.

“The certainty I can give you now is that there will be no cliff edge in terms of a revert back to 2019 or 2018 [grades] or whatever the case might be. It will be done in stages over the coming years. But I think in the interest of fairness it was important that the grade profile this year, in aggregate, is similar to the grade profile of the previous year.”

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The Irish Second Level Students’ Union welcomed Ms Foley’s pledge to make adjustments to the 2023 State exams. ISSU president Caitlin-Faye Maniti, said: “We are glad that this announcement was released promptly, delivering clarity for the class of 2023. These compensations, which the ISSU advocated for and that were agreed upon across the table by educational stakeholders, are vital to giving students the opportunity to put their best foot forward. These students can now walk into school on Monday morning with some certainty of how their exam will be run.”

The adjustments to assessment arrangements for the 2023 exams will be similar to the adjustments announced in August 2021, with updates to take account of new subject specifications.

These adjustments were arrived at through discussions between the Department of Education, the State Examinations Commission and the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment and education stakeholders.

The department said the changes will be made with “due regard for the principles of equity, fairness and integrity, in relation to student-to-student, subject-to-subject, and year-to-year comparisons”.

It added that the adjustments will recognise the loss of learning time students experienced in a “fair manner”, with some contingency for future learning loss that may occur during the 2022/23 school year also built in.