Colman Noctor: The rise in CAO points has sent shock waves through the educational system

I got a place to study psychiatric nursing in 1995. I would not have got next nor near the points required to do the course in 2021

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When third-level college places were announced last week, my social media was quickly flooded with images of excited young adults about to embark on the next stage of their education. Like most years, these images came a week after a stream of news stories on the ‘600-plus points’ students who were rightly celebrated in the national media.

Predictive grading was one of the silver linings of Covid, leading to significantly higher Leaving Cert marks than usual. But the jubilation was quickly diminished by the realisation that the CAO points for many courses had increased as a result.