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LAST UPDATE | 8 May 2020
A LITTLE LESS than a month ago, Minister for Education Joe McHugh announced the Leaving Certificate exams would be delayed until 29 July.
With the support of teachers’ unions and even some on the opposition benches, the government was determined that the exams would go ahead this year, just later than planned.
Today Minister McHugh announced a total reversal of this decision, stating students will instead receive calculated grades. Anyone who is unhappy with those grades can still sit exams at a later date in the future “when it is considered safe to hold” them.
He said the decision was taken following an assessment of public health advice and “other information”.
Although he said this was “not a perfect solution”, he said there is compelling evidence that the exams cannot be held in a reliable and valid way, or in a way that would be equitable for students.
Support for the original postponement
When the government first confirmed the postponement to 29 July, it followed weeks of calls for clarity. With schools closed for an undetermined amount of time at that point, students who were studying at home wanted to know if and when they would get to complete this important stage in their education.
In terms of the government’s plan for easing back restrictions, the new date of 29 July would have put the start of the Leaving Certificate in Phase 4, during which larger groups of people will be able to visit another household, small weddings would be allowed and hairdressers would be able to reopen.
At the time, Minister McHugh said the final arrangements for the exams, including where they were to be held and how physical distancing would be managed, would be determined by the State Examinations Commission on foot of public health advice at the start of June.
Following the announcement, the two teachers’ unions – the Teachers Union of Ireland (TUI) and the Association of Secondary Teachers Ireland (ASTI) – welcomed the fact that the government was “still focused on running the LC, given both its importance and the high level of public trust that it enjoys”.
Other representative bodies, including the National Association of Principals and Deputy Principals (NAPD) also at the time said they “appreciated the clarity” brought by this announcement.
Fianna Fáil’s education spokesperson Thomas Byrne also welcomed the “clarity” he said the decision had brought. In a statement he said:
While some students have advocated for alternatives such as predictive grades, the Leaving Certificate remains the best option. Although they are not perfect, the State exams offer a fair, transparent system by which students are judged on their performance. This would not be possible through the alternatives.”
‘Not straightforward’
However in the two weeks that followed, questions about how the State exam could actually be held and concerns about the fairness of current home-schooling arrangements created fresh uncertainty.
Thomas Byrne told TheJournal.ie that he has been asking the department for the public health advice in relation to the exams since shortly after that announcement last month.
While he said he was initially in favour of the decision to press on with the exams, “it became clear over the course of April” that they could not go ahead as planned.
His clarity came after hearing from constituents and other groups.
“We’ve been getting a huge amount of correspondence from students, parents and teachers. Just to give you one example, I heard from an immuno-compromised mother who was worried about the prospect of the student doing the Leaving Cert in that way.
“There was also a student campaign around it. We heard of other issues like a lack of broadband in student’s homes – and for teachers as well in some cases. There were things that were rolled out much earlier in other countries and not here, such as e-learning platforms.”
When the government on 1 May revealed its roadmap of easing restrictions, it announced schools would not reopen for classes until the new term in September.
However the Taoiseach and the Education Minister both said it was still the plan that the Leaving Certificate exams would go ahead as planned from 29 July and that students would get classroom time over a two-week period beforehand.
“It’s still the plan that sixth years will get some class time before the exams start on the 29th of July, there is a lot of work going on how this can be done safely with social distancing, it’s not straightforward, it is difficult,” the Taoiseach told RTÉ’s Ryan Tubridy when he appeared on The Late Late Show.
“And of course we are still exploring alternatives, like for example predictive marking, but that’s not perfect either, but we’ll be guided by the public health advice at the end of the day whatever takes place.”
Calls for predictive grading
Over the last week, there has been increased pressure on the government to move to that predictive marking system, including from the students themselves.
The Irish Second-Level Students’ Union (ISSU) released a survey which found a majority of students (78.6%) were in favour of cancelling all exams and using an estimated grading model. The union has welcomed today’s announcement.
Inequality in terms of access to digital learning tools was also consistently highlighted. A survey by the the National Parents Council Post Primary (NPCPP) found that one in five students had only limited access to a device and 17% did not have a reliable form or broadband in their home.
On 22 April, Minister McHugh had announced €10 million of funding to support the purchase of technology and devices for disadvantaged students.
He said Leaving Certificate student would be prioritised for this funding, stating it would “help to give the students the tools they need to succeed”. But at that point, students had already been learning from home for several weeks without those supports – that disadvantage would be hard to redress.
One of the more prominent voices to enter this debate was Children’s Ombudsman Dr Niall Muldoon, who had called on the government for clarity on the exams in the early April.
A key meeting
Yesterday, Dr Muldoon met with the minister to discuss issues surrounding the Learning Cert exams. Among the complaints he brought to the minister were those made on behalf of children who do not have a secure, reliable broadband service.
“Families who do not have the financial resources to provide high quality broadband or the equipment needed to stay up to date with schoolwork have contacted the Office of Children’s Ombudsman,” his office said.
There are also students who do not have the support of parents or family members who are IT literate and can understand and help with online activity.”
Today Muldoon also welcomed the decision to cancel the exams, stating he believes it “has been made in the best interest of young people throughout Ireland”.
Public health input
It became clear in recent weeks that the government was not willing to share the public health advice it had received in relation to the exams – it had stated that decisions would be made on how to manage physical distancing at the start of June.
At Department of Health briefings, Chief Medical Officer Dr Tony Holohan was equally coy, confirming only that he had engaged with the Department of Education and would be on hand to provide up to date public health advice whenever it was required. He refused to give details of the advice in relation to the exams that he had already provided.
The Education Minister’s remarks today indicated that public health advice provided to his department since his initial announcement has not been in line with his own hopes for the exams to go ahead.
“I have made every effort to run the 2020 Leaving Certificate as close as possible to the way the examinations were originally intended to be held,” he said.
“My desire had been to allow students to undertake the written and practical examinations in July and August but I have compelling evidence, based on medical advice and other assessments, that the Leaving Certificate examinations cannot be held in a reliable and valid manner, nor in a way that would be equitable for students.”
This evening, Dr Holohan confirmed the cancellation was in line with his team’s advice, but stopped short of saying NPHET had asked for the decision.
“We have no expertise in the running of exams,” he noted.
McHugh acknowledged that this is not a “perfect solution”.
The two teachers’ unions have reserved comment on the decision until after their executive committees meet this evening. With significantly increased responsibility now on their members to estimate the grades their students would have achieved in the exams, this may be the next hurdle for the government.
While the union reaction is – for now – a big unknown, what we do know is that the powerful lobby groups of students, parents and the teachers themselves, as well as the conservative approach of the country’s public health team all played their part in cancelling the Leaving Cert exams for the first time.
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A lot of students will get shafted because of this. From personal experience, it was recommended by 4 of my teachers that I should drop to pass because they thought I was going to fail in the months leading up to the leaving cert. Based on class performance, test results etc, I would say their concerns were justified. I was however able to get a very respectable leaving cert through studying in the month leading up to the LC and cramming the nights before the exams. Under this grading criteria, those teachers would have failed me and I wouldn’t have been able to go to college as a result.
@will: unless you made a balls of your junior cert and most other exams you would have been fine. Probably 99% of kids cram late. Most in my yr got 100 pts more in LC than Mock. Teachers are not eejits they know this. If you are the 16th best in your class of 30 and the 16th best last year in your class got 405 pts that is about what youll be given. Its as good as they could do considering the overwhelming bandwagon to cancel it that was being driven not least by the kids themselves
@TESSERACT2020: I didn’t pass a biology exam i.e Pre, Summer, Christmas or class test for the entire duration of 6th year. I don’t see how my biology teacher could justify passing me under this grading criteria. But I actually got a D1 in Biology in the leaving cert. Which means people will get much lower marks then they would have got as a result of this in the LC, since its very possible to go from failing every test to passing the subject in a month which is my point. And there’s no way a teacher could have forseen me turning it around. All the teacher will have is past exam results, homework etc to go off of.
@will: I was told I should do ordinary level English and I got an A1 at higher. I know it sounds nice not to have to sit exams but I’d be livid if I was getting a grade based on my classwork
@Terrence Edwards: I’d say they just screwed up your result, you were lucky.
As a LC student what has caused me the most stress has been the departments handling of the situation. From being told to put my head down and study as the LC would happen “by hook or by crook” a few weeks ago, to now being told that they are doing predicted grades, an option that McHugh was extremely against, shows just how poorly the situation has been handled. All of my “covid” work is irrelevant because teachers are not to take this work into account. In one day, my LC has been completely changed and I am now “finished” school. The fact that they did not take a proactive stance on the matter a few weeks ago is very disappointing. It would have saved me and all of the other students a lot of stress. Other countries did not mess with their final year students heads like this.
@Ellen: Wait until you come into the real world and learn about real stress. The last few weeks will be like a walk in the park.
@Edwardson Mike: yes, living in a global pandemic is like a walk in the park. Thank you for your empathy.
@Ellen: the last few weeks of work wasn’t all in vein. You’ll have most of the curriculum covered, which for a lot of courses is continued on in college. As well of that, the school term is ongoing so it’s only right that work is still going on. If you need to sit the exams, this work is also useful rather than spending the summer learning new things.
Every exam I’ve taken since I did the leaving cert have been more stressful than any leaving cert exam. Obviously it depends on the course and the college, but it certainly doesn’t get any easier progressing into college
@Ellen: its far from ideal but if Leo had come out a month ago and cancelled the LC he would have got pelters for jumping the gun. About 50% of students wanted to go ahead then compared to 20% now. They had to give it every chance but ultimately bowed to public, teacher, and student pressure lead by the likes of Mick Barry
@Ellen: Stress? Stress? You don’t know what stress is. When I did my LC there were College places for 30%.Today it is 70%. There were NO jobs in the economy, the only alternative was emigration. So of you didn’t get in you were gone. While this was going on my parents were paying mortgage interest rates of 18%. If I had to repeat a year they would be lumped with my Fees on top of everything. Now, that is stress.
@sean o’dhubhghaill: Will you relax you eejit. Anybody who doesn’t think the current group of LCs is going through genuine stress is clearly not thinking straight. There has never been an LC year like this, and their grading is now at the mercy of their teachers who may or may not give them a fair assessment. That determines where they go in college, the overall proportion of college students nowadays isn’t important to someone who misses out on the course they really want.
@sean o’dhubhghaill: some good points and it’s yer man below who’s the eejet.
@sean o’dhubhghaill:
You think YOU had it bad? Back when I did the leaving cert our whole class were fitted with explosive collars and dropped on an island to fight it out to the death!! And then we had to walk uphill 20 miles to get home in time for our dinner (a lump of coal and a class of dirty water).
@: Perfect response hahahah
@sean o’dhubhghaill: I wouldn’t see that as stressful. Depends on your criteria for stress I suppose.
@sean o’dhubhghaill: back in my day we had to run both ways to school and walk back with no shoes . kids today
Complete joke, this is a cop out. They couldn’t get things more wrong if they tried. Very possible to have kept the 6th years in school and hold exams as normal. Antisocial media wins again.
@Mark Malone: tony holohan said it couldn’t happen so why don’t you challenge him on it
@Johnny O’Hooligan: it’s not for the likes of me to challenge a deity. Any man with a God complex and a platform given to him by our leader is way out of my humble reach.
@Johnny O’Hooligan: When did he say it couldn’t happen? I watched him say it was for the Dept of Education to decide.
Best of bad situation. Onwards and upwards. Time to get the country moving and ensure people stay healthy.
Part of the marking process will involve adjusting the grades so that the school’s average will match what’s expected based on previous years.
See: https://www.gov.ie/pdf/?file=https://assets.gov.ie/74043/96076aa3e16240cc93e2a56a1ea94d75.pdf#page=1 Point 10.2
So, if you’re a sharp, hard working kid from Finglas or Ballymun, where schools have lower average grades due to social and economic issues… tough! The HEA will be giving your place to Donnacha or Ferghal instead, since his school is expected to do better.
@: yep….I’ve two classes to grade this year, one of which is really exceptional and would score way above my schools averages over the past number of years. Alas, previous student scores from the past few years is likely to chop them down with the standardisation process.
I think there’ll be another u-turn, I really can’t see this suggestion of predictive grades going ahead.
Asking teachers to rank their students, the elitism of using school tables to “adjust” grades to fit expectations and those studying independently effectively being excluded all seems incredibly dystopian and wrong.
@Rochelle: Can’t see it unfortunately. One u-turn makes the Department look bad enough, but even if sitting the exams in July or August is the right call they’ll hardly go back again now.
@Rochelle: school tables have always been used. This u turn your talking about how would that happen? If there is uproar now the uproar created from that would be off the scale. This is the final decision. We’re not puppets.
@Rochelle: if the 7th best student in Mount Anville for the last 10 years has got 535 points then chances are she will be getting 535 points circa this year regardless of what reverse snobbery towards fee schools is out there.
@TESSERACT2020: Why is she still repeating 8 years later?
@sean o’dhubhghaill: Really needed 540 points.
I’m more worried about next year’s LC, the amount of class time students in 5th year has missed, majority of the LC year is revision. Online classes just do t work
@Geraldine Cussen Lee: that’s why every year should have been cancelled and all start again in September with no new entries into Junior infants. That way they could properly continuously assesses the students if needs be. But the college’s would miss out on a years fees and all the overpaid lecturers couldn’t have that! Joke system.
@Bill: when people say voiding this year. I do wonder if they are trolling or just insane.
Will be some favouritism. Unfortunately some teachers may be intimidated.
@paul christopher cox: or bribed
If the schools were closed, was there not enough space considering empty classrooms for leaving cycle children to be given education and the other teachers available to assist? Plenty of safe space, the young adults are of an age responsible enough to adhere to social distancing. Primary school teachers could have helped invidulate.
Whoever suggested moving the exams to end July needs their head examined!! What a dreadful way to treat the students, a complete shambles.
@Brendan Barr: why?
A total shambles. Poor leadership from those responsible but not surprised by anything these days.
When is this tension between medics advising and government making decisions going to stop? Leo has got to stop hiding behind the skirts of Tony and be the caretaker etc.
Surely you can look at the children’s results to date and get an average and give them a mark on that basis , it will screw with the grind fee paying students who should not be getting higher points and help those who do their best all the way through
If you have an issue with it why not just repeat next year? It’s really not the end of the world, LC is completely out of touch with reality anyway and too much pressure put on young people.
Have exams fees been paid by parents and will these be reimbursed
@Liz Bermingham: yes they will be refunded.
Another win for the unions disgraceful carry om. Will the teachers ever just do a bit of work for Love of god the nurses would be a good lesson to them!
They will be looking for lost money for exam marking next !!
@Donie: ya what a joke never mind the health of everyone else it just has to be the teachers fault.
@Johnny O’Hooligan: God forbid they loose their summers and this year is just one long holiday for them !! Where there is a will there ‘s a way
@Donie: The teachers are still working! And the teachers who don’t mark or supervise exams get paid less than those who do. What is your gripe? Why didn’t you study education?
@sean o’dhubhghaill: I didn’t study teaching because I followed my dad into the trade honest living for me son. Would love ifI had the chance to do it would love summers off with the dog and wife
@Donie: made yourself look like a bit of an eejit there now Donie I’m afraid!! If you’ve been following what was happening you might be able to make more informed comments. Unions had been on board with whatever the plan was and is. They’re meeting tonight even to assess how all this is going to work out, from what I read elsewhere. And if you’re doing a trade, I’m guessing you probably have more holidays than teachers do….unless you work evenings and weekends on top of your days?
@Joe Kennedy: how could they be in board if they are only meeting tonight? Of course they influebcd decision w negativity, typical behaviour from them….
And I work 12hr days in trade, like most others. Bare in mind nxt time you have a leak in ur house!! Prawn sandwich brigade out again
@Donie: they were on board with the previous plan and they’re meeting tonight to discuss the implications of the new plan. You’ll have to read up on it to find out what’s going on. Plumber near me here certainly doesn’t work 12 hour days, so I’ll make the same jump as you and say most plumbers don’t work 12 hour days!!! I do know teachers who work those kinds of hours though.
@Donie: The teachers unions were both fully behind the previous plan to hold the LC in July actually. They actually have strong reservations towards a predicted grading system but accept it as a Plan B since Plan A is no longer feasible. I’ve been teaching from home since March and would love to be back in the classroom and not looking forward to the summer. I’d usually supervise and correct exams for most of it which won’t be happening now.
Should everybody not be encouraged in every way to continue their studies. I can never understand why you should potentially be excluded from education at 18.
@alan:
Not everyone can be an academic. Frankly I think schooling is going on for too long for too many. Masters degree is becoming the new standard, and increasingly colleges are making it 2 years to “be like the rest of the EU” (who have a 3 year bachelors, but no talk of shortening bachelors degrees here). I know people who are on their second masters degree, it’s going mad.
Education is great, but I wish there were more options to pursue it while working, more night courses, flexible part time courses, I shouldn’t have to quit my job to learn about something.
We are so obviously not “in this together” childcare workers, out of work, being paid by the state, and their employers, again benefiting from state aid, coz of a fear of contracting covid19,will not help our front line staff. Apparently Special Needs Assistants (SNAs) who were to be redeployed have been told by their union to do nothing! What a sham! I suppose these groups and their unions are out clapping in support every week for front line staff!
They might as well become bouncers so
@Trev Gilmore: nó comments from The unions yet.
@Dave Barrett: https://www.rte.ie/news/2020/0508/1137174-leaving-cert/
They are meeting now. Bit bloody late.
The leaving cert exam should not have been cancelled. There are enough rooms in the schools to separate the students safely, for those who wished to take part. I would say that it comes down to money, and the cost of paying the supervisors. Best of luck to all students who are now facing predictive grades.
Oh well
Must have been a Freudian slip where it was referred to as “the learning cert” in one paragraph above. Very apt
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