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LAST UPDATE | 26 May 2020
MORE THAN 33,000 Leaving Cert students have registered for the Calculated Grades system so far – over seven hours after the online portal to register opened.
Students have been registering online since 10am this morning; they will have until 10pm on Thursday to register. Those who do not register for the Calculated Grades system will be opting to sit the written exam later in the year.
When exactly these written exams take place partly depends on the number of students who wish to opt for this option.
There are around 61,000 Leaving Cert students.
All Leaving Certificate and Leaving Certificate Applied students can register now on gov.ie/leavingcertificate between 10am this morning and 10pm Thursday 28 May.
All students following the Leaving Certificate Established or Leaving Certificate Vocational Programmes must choose whether they are being assessed based on the Higher Level or Ordinary Level exam papers in each of their subjects.
Students will have the option of confirming the level or changing to a lower level, which is an option open to Leaving Cert students if they were sitting a State examination.
If a student is unhappy with their calculated grades, the results of which will be given in August, the student will have the option of appealing that decision. If they are unhappy with the appeal, they will be able to sit the written exams in the subjects they wish to appeal.
If they are unhappy with the grades in their written exam, they can choose to stick with their calculated grade, the Department of Education said.
When registering on gov.ie/leavingcertificate, students must have the following information to hand:
Once the Department has received all the necessary data from schools, students will be asked to opt in through the portal to indicate if they wish to receive Calculated Grades.
“This is a brand-new system that it has been necessary to introduce because of the decisions we have had to take as we respond to Covid-19 situation. It is vital now that every Leaving Certificate and Leaving Certificate Applied student is aware of the new online registration on gov.ie/leavingcertificate.
The important message for Leaving Certificate students is that they must now register by Thursday at 10pm to ensure that they can receive their Leaving Certificate Calculated Grades.
“It is also essential that students confirm their levels at this time so that schools can complete the task of providing information for each student about their expected level of performance in each subject.”
Schools have been asked to assist their students as much as possible but if anyone has trouble getting access online, there will be helpline support from midday today:
- With reporting by Gráinne Ní Aodha
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holy god you would think the country and media could just move on from this incessant coverage of Leaving Cert – the rest of the country is in a perilous state in terms of livlihood , non covid health challenges , economy and that pesky issue of. a reopening. schedule that is suppose to be a ‘live plan’ but increasingly looks like NPHET are sticking to their 2m , 5 phases , 3 weeks and a spinfest on how amazeballs we were with nursing homes – seriously the leaving cert narrative is overcooked by now FFS
@Dave Hammond: I think the whole point was that this is what the vast amount of students believed was the right course of action, but the Government, as always, refuse to listen unless they are left with no have no options- amateurs seeking headlines and politicising a crisis for the own self importance and the sad part is they are receiving very large publicly funded salaries to be amateurs.
@Dave Hammond: Would you ever register yourself; you never know your luck.
Question? What happens if they don’t register.
@Dave Barrett: they don’t get graded and can re-sit the exams later on, that’s my understanding anyway.
@Vic’s Burd: very hard either way. For those wanting to sit the exam the course syllabus was not completed by teachers in a lot of subjects. Distance learning the Is not the same as been in The class.
@Dave Barrett: They will be fine. They will meet many greater challenges in their lives.
@MiseBean: Indeed. Stopping school in mid-March & staying at home wondering when something’s going to happen; missing their pals & teachers; trying to study at home amid television distractions – all this has been for Leaving Cert students a Test of Character. It will prepare them for the Rotha Mór an tSaoil, life’s wobbly rotation, wherever it brings them.
@Dave Barrett: read the article?
@Vic’s Burd: If this is the case its disgraceful zi think. IMO all should be graded and then if theu don’t like the outcome they should be able to sit the exams later in the year. They should be graded no matter what. Is it saving the teachers having to grade them doing it this way?
@Lydia McLoughlin: No. they need to opt in & state their levels
@Caddyshack: tx
Some stupid decision. They should have done the leaving cert.
easy to distance them when it is only them in the school for the exams. Have six in each classroom with the windows open. Simple.
@Nioe: And the orals. 2 people in a room at any given time.
@Nioe: practicals, projects had to be completed how were they ever going to be finished?
@Nioe: Of course! Magic up some time/people/space and get it done. If only you were in the room when they decided this.
@Conor Rowan: they had the whole summer to play with, there are more than enough teachers in the country to invigilate small groups, and the schools are lying empty. Any other issues?
@Lurfic: Given the social distancing requirements; we could have had double the amount of sittings per student not counting orals, aurals, and practicals. Now add the complication of limiting people in each building – getting it done in 2 months would be an achievement.
Next there’s additional invigilators required – I’m sure many teachers would volunteer (and let’s forgo training them for the sake of argument) but, given how awkward the unions have been getting the current process in place, no guarantee they’d be available for the start date.
Now I’m by no means knowledgeable on this at all but even I can think of 3 potential sumbling blocks.
Plenty of armchair policy gurus suggesting ‘why don’t they just X’ as if there’s easy answers during this once in a lifetime crisis.
@Nioe: unfortunately the problem was that if one student showed symptoms that whole shool would have to isolate and this could be a possibility in any number of schools
@Conor Rowan: all 3rd level exams were carried out, online mostly. What’s the difference between a 17/18 etc year old sitting a leaving cert and yhose of the same age sitting 3rd level end of year exams?
@Stephen Foster: The LC is every 17/18 year old in the country doing multiple, tightly controlled exams at the exact same time. It’s not really comparable to 3rd level assessments.
As said, not an expert, but just don’t think it’s as simple as suggested.
@Conor Rowan: Actually the unions were much more supportive of holding the the LC in July with physical distancing than the current predictive grading measures. The issue they take with it predictive grading is that they’re against teachers grading their own students on an official capacity due to lack of objective evaluation and possible bias. Also the department of education didn’t really involve the unions in the whole process and just flung it on teachers and students.
A question not answered yet is what about students who choose to sit an exam that has coursework element e.g. Engineering, Construction etc.? They haven’t done the practicals not the projects and folders. How will they resit them?
@Edward Ucator: If resitting this year then that would have to be a written exam only like it was going to be.
If next year then I presume they’ll be seen the same as repeat LC and will have to do the projects from September like every repeat LC student in previous years has done.
Considering the LC is itself about education, and in a wide variety of subjects — not just English — students are penalised for poor expression, it’s very ironic that the *official* name for this system is so poorly worded: “Calculated Grades”? Are grades in other years not calculated?
@Gerard: No. They’re obtained or achieved. In this context, the definition of ‘calculate’ is different to the way you’re using it.
Serious difficulties trying to register . More top thinking and collective decision makers given sixty thousand plus two days to register. Give my head peace !
17,000 according to RTE??
Why do they need a students pps? Honestly, just wondering…..
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