Students left waiting on accuracy of Leaving Cert results

Minister for Education Norma Foley. Picture: Julien Behal Photography

Students could be forced to wait as long as a week or more before they find out if they have received an incorrect grade in their Leaving Cert.

While Norma Foley, the Minister for Education, hopes the ongoing review into errors in the calculated grades system is finished "as soon as possible", it is understood that it is unlikely to be concluded before Monday. 

Approximately one in ten students are believed to have received a lower grade than they deserved due to two known errors in the system developed as an alternative after the cancellation of the written exams. 

Once the ongoing review is completed by the Educational Testing Service (ETS), its findings will be sent to the Calculated Grades Office of the Department of Education, where it could take more than a week to determine the outcome of affected exams, as well as the additional college places that will be needed. 

Sources say that informing students is the top priority for the department. Only after the affected students have been advised will a public statement on the matter be made. 

A Department spokesman said: "When the Department receives the report from ETS, the Calculated Grades Executive office will commence work to finalise students’ results and they will issue to students as soon as possible thereafter."

Meanwhile, Labour is calling for an independent, non-statutory inquiry into the 2020 Leaving Cert to examine the decision-making and governance behind the processes used to develop the alternative grading model after the written exams were canceled in May. 

Such a review is required to ensure the same mistakes are not repeated again ahead of next year's exams in case it's not possible to hold a written exam again. That's according to Aodhán Ó Ríordáin, Labour's education spokesman. 

"We need to know who was responsible for the mistakes that happened, why they weren't found, who made what decisions over recent months, and an examination of the handling of the issue by the government," he said. 

"It is essential that the inquiry is independent of government, and the report of such an inquiry should then be provided to the Dáil and any findings considered by the Oireachtas Committee on Education."

Given the upheaval caused by the errors with the system, the deadline for students to register to sit a written exam has been extended until next Wednesday, October 7. The third round of CAO offers has also been delayed while the department awaits the outcome of the external review. 

Details of the errors were first made public this week. 

The Department of Education has blamed the inconsistencies on code programmed by external contractor Polymetrika. 

The system was meant to standardise results by drawing on the core subjects of Irish, English, and Maths, and combine them with students’ two best non-core subjects. 

The coding error instead combined them with the students’ two weakest non-core subjects. 

CSPE results were also included when they were meant to be excluded.