Changes to Leaving Cert to be delayed

Major changes to how Leaving Certificate exams are graded, and cuts to numbers of courses offered by colleges from what was available in 2011, will not take effect for another two to three years — at least a year later than first planned.

They are part of a process started by Education Minister Ruairi Quinn after taking office in 2011 to reduce the pressure of the college points system and its effects on learning in second level.

It was proposed a year ago that the first changes would begin by autumn 2014, but phased implementation will now only start with students starting fifth year in September 2015, most of who will sit the Junior Certificate this summer and go on to transition year in the interim.

Among the key changes almost finalised is the introduction of a new eight-scale grading system from June 2017 which, as revealed in the Irish Examiner last week, will see the existing 14- point scale (A1, A2, B1, B2, B3, and so on) replaced by new grades, each 10% apart. They will simply be numbered 1 to 8 for higher and ordinary level (H1, H2, O1, O2, etc).

While it has yet to be formally approved by the National Council for Curriculum and Assessmentbefore it gives final advice to Mr Quinn on the issue, this grading scale had strongest support in consultations on changing grade systems, particularly among students asked their views at a workshop last October.

It will be at least another two years before there are fewer university degrees for students to choose from in the CAO selection system.

A commitment to emerge after the 2011 Transitions conference which started the process was that fewer level 8 degrees would be offered by the seven universities, meaning less courses with limited places for which students have to score near-perfect Leaving Certificate grades to have a chance of entry.

But as highlighted by the Irish Examiner in February, the total number of university degrees for which school-leavers can apply instead rose from 567 in 2011 to 579 this year, 40% of them accounted for by 237 courses at Trinity College Dublin, albeit two fewer than it had three years ago.

Mr Quinn said universities have committed to ensuring the number of undergraduate courses offered in 2015 is reduced to the same number as was available in 2011.

While UCD has reduced its offerings by 10 to 46 since 2011, degree numbers at Dublin City University rose by 13 to 68 in the same period; those at NUI Maynooth rose by eight to 50 and UCC course numbers went from 51 to 58.