THE AVERAGE Leaving Cert student scores 305 CAO points, much lower than generally recognised.
With this year's Leaving Cert results, that will to be published on Wednesday, an Irish Timesanalysis shows half of last year's class scored less than 300 points.
In a worrying finding, some 12 per cent of students – over 6,500 candidates – scored less than 100 points in the exam last year.
In all, over 7,000 students secured less than 200 points in 2010.
The figures show there are a huge number of students who continue to struggle with the exam – but this is often obscured by the focus on the high performers.
On average, students require at least 350 CAO points to secure a place on a higher level arts degree course in college.
But hundreds of colleges courses are available for students on 200 points or lower especially for those areas where student demand is low.
Last year, 31 per cent of students secured over 400 CAO points while 8 per cent gained over 500 points.
Only 0.2 per cent secured 600 CAO points – the so called “perfect” Leaving Cert.
In 2010, the average points score was 305, marginally up on the pattern in 2009.
In a new submission to the Department of Education, a leading educationalist says only students with 350 points and those who meet tougher entry requirements should be allowed to enter higher education.
Dr Seán McDonagh, a former director of Dundalk Institute of Technology and the Government’s Expert Skills Group says admission to higher education is “easy and the State funded place not really earned”.
The points system, he says, was intended to be a competition where places are filled in rank order of points.
But it is now a “one size fits all’’ system admitting students with points scores from 25 to 600.
The Irish Times survey on Leaving Cert scores points to the “two-tier” nature of second-level education in Ireland.
Last year a study by the UCD Geary Institute found that children of professionals get an average of 90 points more in their Leaving Certificate than those born from a manual working background.
Dr Kevin Denny said the key factor to influence college entry was Leaving Cert points.
Dr Denny’s research underlined how few children from working-class backgrounds secured enough points to gain a place in most university courses, despite the abolition of fees.
Overall, less than 15 per cent of Leaving Cert students in some poorer areas of Dublin are progressing to third level.
In stark contrast, most schools in south Dublin have a progression rate of 100 per cent; every one of their students who sat the Leaving Cert this year has progressed to third level.
The UCD report echoed the findings of a Higher Education Authority study last year which found that lower socio-economic groups such as manual workers, semi-skilled or unskilled workers, were still hugely under-represented on “blue chip” third-level courses like medicine, pharmacy and law.
In June the Minister for Education, Ruairí Quinn, announced a review of the CAO points system which has not been examined since the Points Commission in 1999.
