Minority of students gain ‘Irish’ bonus CAO points

FEWER than half of students who sit Leaving Certificate exams through Irish get extra points for college entry, according to academic researchers.

Despite perceptions that the small proportion of school leavers taking papers in Irish gain a major advantage because of the additional marks available, the Educational Research Centre at St Patrick’s College in Dublin has found it is not necessarily the case.

The maximum extra marks available for Irish-language exams ranges from 2.5% to 10% of total marks, depending on the subject and whether a student takes a higher or ordinary level paper. But such increases do not necessarily bring candidates up by a sub-grade of Central Applications Office (CAO) points.

For example, a student with 61% in a higher-level subject who gains 3.75% through sitting the Irish version of the exam will not increase their C2 grade as they would need 65% or more to move to a C1, which is worth five CAO points more or 70 points.

The study by Eoghan Mac Aogáin, David Millar and Thomas Kellaghan examined the results of a little more than 2,000 students who sat Leaving Certificate maths, French, history and economics, through Irish in 2002, or 2.3% of all candidates in these four subjects.

Out of a maximum of 10 extra CAO points available in any subject, 52.3% of the students gained no increase, 42.4% got an extra five points and about one-in-20 were awarded 10 additional points. This suggests average increases of 15 points for students counting six subjects through Irish for college entry.

However, a 1999 report by the Commission on the Points System suggested that up to 45 points could be gained by many students sitting all their exams in Irish. The commission had recommended the bonus marks for Irish should be ended.

However, the authors of the latest study, in the Irish Journal of Education, said there is merit in the Higher Education Authority’s recommendation to the points commission that the way the bonus works in practice should be looked at more closely, rather than being scrapped entirely.

Almost all students taking Leaving Certificate exams through Irish attend all-Irish second-level schools, most are girls and the majority choose higher-level papers.