Alternatives to 'traditional' Leaving Cert exams to be discussed
The Cabinet is expected to make a decision on the format for this year’s Leaving and Junior Cert exams when it meets next Tuesday.
Possible alternatives to the ‘traditional’ Leaving Cert exams will be discussed further again today ahead of an expected Government decision on what format the 2021 State exams will take.
Today representatives of students, parents, teachers and school management will meet again virtually to discuss the arrangements for the 2021 State exams.
The Cabinet is expected to make a decision on the format for this year’s Leaving and Junior Cert exams when it meets next Tuesday.
This week, a number of options for the Leaving Cert were discussed by the group tasked with contingency planning for the exams.
These include:
- delaying the exams until later in the summer,
- offering students calculated grades,
- the grading model used last year after the 2020 exams cancelled,
- providing open access to third-level,
- offering students a ‘hybrid-model’ which would see students offered the choice between calculated grades and a written exam.
The final option is favoured by the Irish Second-Level Students' Union (ISSU), who received strong support for this in a recent student survey it carried out.
However, both second-level teaching unions, the Teachers’ Union of Ireland (TUI) and the Association of Secondary Teachers Ireland (ASTI) support holding modified, written exams.
Both unions have voiced concerns over the return of calculated grades, around the logistics of teaching a class split into those who want calculated grades and those who wish to sit written exams, and around the lack of data available to base students’ grades on.
ISSU Survey Results:
— Irish Second-Level Students' Union (ISSU) (@issu4u) January 20, 2021
Students Want Choice & Clear Communication from Department on State Examinations & Schools Reopening
Read the full report:
🔗: https://t.co/hOTVUA0fHh pic.twitter.com/nzAHlujtdI
This week, Taoiseach Micheál Martin said a combination of a calculated grades system and a written exam is the current “preferred option’.
Political pressure also continues, with all opposition parties agreeing that the traditional exams cannot proceed in their usual format this summer at the usual time.
Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire, Sinn Féin’s education spokesman, said there are fairer ways of checking the accuracy of grades than with algorithms, standardisation or school profiling, should calculated grades be used.
Sinn Féin is calling for the exams to go ahead for students who wish to sit them but that alternative assessment options also be provided to students.
Last night I called on the Minister to listen to students and give them a choice for Leaving Cert 2021. If a decision is made quickly, then this can be done, and students can avail of CAO offers this autumn regardless of their choice. However, the Minister must act urgently. pic.twitter.com/f3kVF8siLg
— Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire (@Donnchadhol) February 2, 2021
Access to third level will also need to be improved ahead of next September, he added.
Aodhán Ó Ríordáin, Labour’s education spokesman, has called for students to be given the choice between calculated grades and a modified exam.
However, “the independent review into the mistakes made last year with calculated grades still hasn’t started,” he told the Examiner.
“The review should have been able to pinpoint where things went wrong in the process.”
Mick Barry of Solidarity - People Before Profit has called for the exams to be cancelled outright, and for the focus to be placed on providing open access to third-level next year.
The Leaving Cert is stressful in normal times, he told the Dáil yesterday.
“This year, students have experienced Covid directly themselves, students have had family members with the disease.
“Students have lost 15 weeks of classroom teaching time already. There are students out there who cannot sleep, there are students who are not eating properly.” He believes a ‘hybrid’ Leaving Cert and a ‘delayed’ Leaving Cert will add to that stress, he added.
