Michael Clifford: Fairness never a feature of the points race

This year, so far, it would appear that a small cohort of high-aspiring pupils, mainly from fee-paying schools, have been the victims of the calculated Leaving Certificate results scheme, due to Covid-19. 

The publication of the Leaving Cert results last Monday was always going to be met with cries of “unfair” from those who didn’t make it to the summit of their expectations. Some have gone as far as to posit the notion that an injustice has been visited on this cohort.

How could it be any other way? Over 60,000 students were marked on the exam in a manner that was unique and strange because of the prevailing health emergency. There was no way that everybody was going to be happy. It was inevitable that when expectations were not met by the calculated results scheme, there would be claims that the system was simply unfair on some.