Leaving Cert 2025 marks the slow return to grade normality

While normality has resumed in almost every other aspect of life post covid, it is taking a little longer when it comes to tackling grade inflation

College entry here remains still so tightly bound to the Leaving Cert, and sudden moves to dramatically “deflate” grades would be a disadvantage to students when compared to those presenting results from 2020 to 2024. File picture: Domnick Walsh

It's a conundrum that wouldn’t seem out of place on a higher level paper.

“Exam authorities artificially increased more than half of all Leaving Cert grades in 2025 in a bid to bring them down. Explain, in your own words, how and why?”