LAST UPDATE | 24 May 2023

THE RESULTS OF this year’s Leaving Cert exams will be published on Friday, 25 August.

Education Minister Norma Foley called it a “significant and very welcome step towards pre-pandemic norms in relation to the timing for issue of results”.

In 2021 and 2022, the results of the Leaving Certificate were issued on the first Friday of September, while calculated results were issued on the first Monday of September in 2020.

Pre-pandemic, in 2019, these results were released on Tuesday, 13 August.

Foley added that the State Examinations Commission (SEC) will “implement a post-marking adjustment following completion of marking, in the context of avoiding any cliff edge in grades as compared to the pandemic years”.

The Education Minister also confirmed that similar assessment adjustments will be made next year because “the impact of the pandemic is not yet in the past”.

“It will have disrupted teaching and learning for the cohort of students sitting State examinations in 2023 and indeed the majority of those sitting Leaving Certificate examinations in 2024 will not have sat Junior Cycle examinations,” said Foley.

“In confirming adjustments to assessment for the 2024 State examinations, I am pleased to be able to give this clarity and certainty to students.

“I am confident that the adjustments announced today acknowledge the disruption faced by these students as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic in a proportional manner, ensure fairness and equity for students, and are educationally appropriate.”

A Department spokesperson said the level of adjustment in 2024 “will be the same as that applied to State examinations in 2022 and 2023, but updated as relevant”.

They added: “The changes are being 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.”

Close to 134,800 candidates are entered to take the certificate examinations this year, an increase of almost 3,400 when compared to last year, the first time a full set of examinations were run since 2019. 

In a statement by the SEC, a spokesperson said: “Similar to 2022, there are a number of significant factors which have made providing a date for the issue of the Leaving Certificate results difficult until now.”

The SEC added: “The commitment to avoid a “cliff-edge” in the profile of results is likely to require an adjustment to the marks awarded to students through the marking process which can only be applied once all of the marking has been completed.  

“This step will add time to the results process in comparison to a normal (pre-Covid) year.” 

The SEC also noted that “there will again be a series of deferred examinations for candidates who miss their examinations in the main sitting due to close family bereavement or serious illness, accident or injury”.   

The SEC also confirmed that there will be a “series of deferred examinations for candidates who miss their examinations in the main sitting due to close family bereavement or serious illness, accident or injury”. 

The date for the CAO results for this year has not yet been set. 

In a statement this afternoon, Minister for Further and Higher Education Simon Harris said his Departure “will now work with the Central Applications Office to confirm the date of offers”. 

“We will also continue to work with the third level sector to expand the number of places available to students.”

With reporting by Hayley Halpin