Leaving Cert: Dept of Education to establish special unit to 'ensure fairness'

The Minister for Education has confirmed that the Leaving Certificate exam has been postponed this year.

"The medical advice that we've got is saying, quite clearly, that the expectation is that we will not be in a different place for all these exams as we had originally intended to," Joe McHugh said.

Following a decision approved by cabinet, all students are being offered the option of receiving calculated grades for subjects and the alternative of sitting the exam at a date in the future "when it is considered safe to do so".

However, if a student chooses to sit the exam, it will not be held in time for college entry for the 2020/21 academic year.

The decision was confirmed today after public health advice noted that the previously announced date of July 29 would not be possible due to health implications associated with Covid-19.

The two main phases in the process of calculating grades will be school-based and national standardisation.

Teachers will be asked to provide a professional judgement of each student's attainment which will be subject to "rigorous" in-school alignment process "to ensure fairness".

Teachers will not set additional assessments, instead using student's performance over the course of study, class assessments, mock exams, coursework (even if incomplete) and previous results in the subject while at school.

A special unit is being established within the Department of Education to process the data provided by each school to "ensure fairness".

However concerns were quickly raised about biases among teachers and schools towards students, or whether teacher's could be put under pressure from parents or others to pass students, a concern that the Minister himself has also voiced in the past.

Final grades will be issued to each student as close as possible to the traditional date, and student right to appeal will be retained.

The government's political rivals say that "appalling" school profiling in lieu of the Leaving Cert will further inequality.

School profiling relates to the overall average exam results produced by an individual school.

Opposition politicians say this factor compounded with the fact the student will not sit an exam means that high performing students in low performing schools will now be operating at a disadvantage.

Minister Joe McHugh said the decision was made "with the best interests of students at heart".

However the government had come under increased pressure in recent weeks after a series of leaks to the media, and "lobbying" from a number of groups has been attributed to the shift in the government's view of holding the exam, which the Taoiseach announced a matter of weeks ago would go ahead "by hook or by crook".

There was no perfect solution but I believe this is the fairest possible outcome for 6th years. It ends the uncertainty and makes sure students can start their college and other courses in the autumn. Nobody wants to risk losing a year. #LeavingCert pic.twitter.com/vxi4zR3cfx

— Leo Varadkar (@LeoVaradkar) May 8, 2020

It has been noted by opposition politicians that the decision "does not appear to be the Minister's own", and "other political forces" may have interfered.

Mr McHugh also admitted that on grounds of "legitimate expectation", the state could be liable to court action.

"In terms of the legal advice, there are vulnerabilities in this," Mr McHugh said.

"The advice that we're getting is, because there is a legitimate expectation for students to sit the Leaving Cert, and a solution which is different to the expectations of the students over two years, there are legal vulnerabilities.

"It has been flagged, there will be an issue but there is very clear advice there is compelling health evidence, saying that the Leaving Cert can't go ahead."

The Department of Education looked at a number of options in lieu of postponing the exams, including spreading the exams out, with one exam a day from July 29 to the beginning of September, or exams that potentially could just last one and a half hours.

However, these options could also have presented legal liability on the same grounds, or were later deemed unsafe under the advice from the National Public Health Emergency Team (NPHET).

The government's political rivals say it is "inevitable" that the case will end up in the High Court, as parents with means to challenge the state in court will do so when their children do not receive the grades they were expecting.

Labour's education spokesman, Aodhán Ó Ríordáin called calculated grading "problematic" and would likely ensure that those at fee paying schools would end up with better grades than children at schools from disadvantaged areas.