Q&A: What will the Leaving Cert changes mean for students?

The timetable for the examinations will be issued in the coming days, however, we know they will begin in June 2022. Picture: Mark Stedman/RollingNews.ie

What is changing with the Leaving Cert?

For the first time since 2019, the Leaving Certificate will return to its usual in-person exam setting with some changes to specific subject exams.

Why is there a dispute over this?

Many students' representative bodies, as well as the majority of the opposition, had called for a hybrid system or an accredited grades system.

Education Minister Norma Foley said that a number of options had been looked at around accredited grades but it was not possible to repeat the same processes as last year.

Government say this is largely due to the fact that one in four in 2021 did not sit a junior cycle exam so the individual students' data, such as their junior cert grade, is not available so they would not be in the position to provide accredited grades in a system that was as fair as last year's.

Opposition politicians claim the department is "wedded" to the traditional Leaving Cert exam and the Government has been "unimaginative" in responding to students' concerns about time missed at school due to Covid-19.

When will students sit their exams?

The timetable for the examinations will be issued in the coming days, however, we know they will begin in June 2022.

As a contingency, there will be a second sitting of exams available to those who are eligible, set within defined criteria, such as those who are certified with serious medical reasons that they cannot or are unable to sit the first exams, or for reasons which are consistent with the public health guidance at the time. Close family bereavement along the same lines as applied in 2019 will also be included in the criteria.

How will grade profiling work?

When standards are being set by the examining team within a subject, they have regard to the profile results from previous years, the objectives of the syllabus, and the performance of students on the day of the examinations -  all those things are taken into consideration.

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The approach taken to marking in 2021 will be similar this year.

In 2021, statistical referencing did not form part of the standard-setting process within the examinations. Students weren't in any way constrained by historical performance in that subject when they were being marked in the examinations.

On the aggregate, the overall profile of achievement in 2022 will be no worse than it was in 2021 and the exams will take into account the accredited rates awarded last year.

On average pupils will be up 60 points on 2019, to maintain the comparability with 2021.

What are the changes to the exams?

A document with "extensive changes" is due to be sent to schools next week.

There are four new subjects to be added to the Leaving Certificate: Polish, Lithuanian, and Portuguese, and Mandarin Chinese.

Meanwhile, there will now be a "considerable" choice on the paper and less content prepared to be studied. In maths, for example, students will have six topics, rather than 10.

In English, higher-level paper two will be reduced from three sections to two. Changes to practical and oral exams will also be implemented, "tailor-made" to the circumstances students faced over the last two years.

The amount of time given for the exams will remain the same, but many exams will see the number of questions reduced.

What about the Junior Cycle?

Adjustments to the assessment arrangements for Junior Cycle have been made and advised in August 2021, including a reduction in the number of classroom-based assessments to be completed, the removal of the requirement to complete assessment tasks, and adjustments to the requirements in coursework and practical performance tests.

These adjustments provide for more teaching time in schools.