Leaving Cert 2023: For how much longer will grade inflation be with us?

For the fourth year in a row, the Leaving Cert has been impacted by the pandemic and its fallout, prompting concerns around the fairness of grade inflation.

Conor Aherne, Luke O'Sullivan, Natalia Sieradzk, Shauna White, and Henok Attikossie, all pupils of the Nagle Community College, Cork, who will access their Leaving Cert results by phone. Picture: Dan Linehan

Grasping the nettle of grade inflation won't be easy, and it seems unlikely we will see a drastic reversal of the pandemic-era phenomenon anytime soon.

While exam bosses have staved off further runaway increases across the board for a second year in a row, this year's results remain inflated when compared to 2019, at an overall average rate of 7%.