One in five LC students got results upgraded

ONE in five Leaving Certificate students succeeded last year in having their results upgraded.

Dissatisfied senior students lodged 10,299 appeals against grades in a variety of subjects. A total of 2,192 succeeded in getting improved grades, a new report showed.

However, five of the appeal cases resulted in students being handed worse grades. Overall, examiners awarded more than 387,749 grades to 56,237 Leaving Cert students last year.

In the Junior Cert, there were significantly less appeals but about half of the 1,689 applications succeeded.

The grades were awarded by examiners engaged by the State Examinations Commission (SEC), the new independent body set up last year.

The appeals were slightly down from 2002 where 2,300 Leaving Cert upgrades were ordered.

The commission’s chairman Jimmy Farrelly yesterday expressed delight with the SEC’s first year in operation.

He pointed to the nightmarish logistics faced by the organisation in its first year. It involved engaging 10,000 contract personnel to assist in drafting, setting, superintending and marking the examinations. The new body, he said, also produced two million individual examination papers and delivered them to more than 4,600 examination centres.

Mr Farrelly yesterday rejected suggestions the SEC faced a potential shortage of examiners this summer.

Although advertisements were placed in the public press in recent weeks, the SEC chairman said he did not anticipate any shortage of examiners.

The Teachers Union of Ireland president Derek Dunne welcomed the report and acknowledged the vital role the SEC has to play. “However,” he said, “we would hope that funding remains in line with what is required for the SEC to carry out its job properly.”

Mr Dunne noted: “The example of the National Education Welfare Board has shown that the degree of separation from the department does not achieve anything unless adequate financial support is given.”

Meanwhile, the first annual report also revealed that Leaving Cert grades were withheld in 30 individual cases while seven grades to individual students were withheld in Junior Cert.

According to the report, “grades were only withheld following thorough investigation, including contact with the schools and candidates concerned”.