Elaine Loughlin: Government finally realises normal Leaving Cert may not be possible

The CAO deadline of February 1 has come and gone and yet students still have no idea as to whether they will be sitting a traditional State exam at all this year.

The start of February marks an important day on the Leaving Certificate calendar.

The CAO deadline of February 1 has come and gone and yet students still have no idea as to whether they will be sitting a traditional State exam at all this year.

The reality of a second year of largely empty exam halls is beginning to dawn on the Government.

While an official announcement is not expected for at least another week, the Taoiseach and his ministers have embarked on the politically difficult process of slowly rowing back on their long-held and determined stance that students will have a normal Leaving Cert experience this summer.

Both the Government and the Department of Education have steadfastly held onto the view that the Leaving Cert should take place this year after the predicted grades confusion of last year.

In November, Department officials told the Oireachtas Education Committee that they were “determined” to run conventional Leaving Cert and Junior Cert exams in 2021.

Last month, as plans to get Leaving Cert student back into the classroom lay in tatters, Education Minister Norma Foley again expressed her determination to hold exams in June despite the closure of schools.

"We will not be found wanting in the Department of Education in our determination to deliver the established Leaving Certificate," she said on January 8.

"We are moving along the path of the traditional Leaving Cert in June," she added.

In-class assessments

While the so-called partners in education, mainly the teaching unions, still want to see students sit the exams later this year, behind the scenes the groundwork has been put in to allow for predicted grades or teacher assessments.

Before schools shut, the Irish Second-Level Students Union (ISSU) raised concerns that students were being put through an "unrelenting cycle" of in-class assessments and tests as teachers wanted to make sure they had some basis to grade their pupils if the Leaving Cert was abandoned for a second year in a row.

ISSU president Reuban Murray, told the Oireachtas Education Committee in November that students were facing monthly, in some cases weekly, class tests as teachers scrambled to have some sort of backup in place.

These tests, once a way for students to improve their learning and critique themselves, now take on a whole new level of pressure and stress as students know many of these class tests may decide their exam results.

The first sign that the Government are finally coming to the realisation that Leaving Cert exams may simply not be practical or possible again this summer came from the Taoiseach this week.

Speaking to the Irish Examiner, Micheál Martin said the "preferred option" is now towards a combination of a calculated grades system and a written exam.

“I'd like to give options to the students," said Mr Martin. "And the more we can move back towards normality in education the better.”

Five options

At a lengthy sub-Cabinet committee yesterday at least five options were considered, but ministers were said to be "not even close" to making a final decision on how 60,000 students due to sit the exam this year will be assessed.

The first two options involve sitting the traditional exams in June as usual, or moving them by a few weeks into July to give learners the maximum amount back in school.

A third option of calculated grades was also discussed as was the hybrid model put forward by Mr Martin.

The final possibility would be to allow students apply for whatever third level course they like, however, it is understood this was almost immediately ruled out and given very little consideration.

Whatever the final decision, it will be Tuesday of next week at the earliest before the details of this year's Leaving Certificate are announced and many more weeks before students get back to school.