Leaving Cert: Predicted grades may replace deferred exams for ill and bereaved

Providing predicted grades instead of deferred exams for Leaving Cert students affected by bereavement or illness is one of a number of options which has been under review by education authorities in a bid to speed up the delivery of results.

While results are traditionally issued in mid-August, they have been released in September over recent years due to Covid-related factors. This has led to delays to first-year students starting college, a last-minute scramble for college accommodation and criticism from universities.

Minister for Education Norma Foley last year announced a “root and branch” review to explore ways to speed up the delivery of results.

It is understood that the staging of deferred exams in July last year for students affected by bereavement, illness or Covid has been under review by authorities.

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In response to an Irish Times query, a spokesman for the State Examinations Commission (SEC) said the overarching principles in providing deferred exams to those who need them is “safeguarding integrity and maintaining confidence in the Leaving Certificate to ensure equity and fairness for all candidates”.

He added: “In light of experience at the 2022 Leaving Certificate, the SEC is evaluating the extension of RACE (reasonable accommodation) scheme to provide deferred Leaving Certificate examinations”.

While only a few hundred students sat deferred exams in July, authorities had to wait for these results before adjusting the final marks for all 60,000 students.

This was due to the need to complete a “post-marking” adjustment to ensure last year’s results were no lower than the previous year’s. This was on foot of a Government pledge to ensure the class of 2022 were not disadvantaged by inflated results in previous years.

Post-marking adjustments

Officials have described this as a complex and time-consuming process which had to be applied across the main and deferred sets of exams.

Additional time may also be needed to mark the 2023 Leaving Cert if another post-marking adjustment is carried out on results this year.

Ms Foley pledged that this year there would be no “cliff-face” drop in grades, suggesting that some form of post-marking intervention may be required again in 2023.

Research undertaken by academics at Trinity College Dublin has found that it is unusual to provide deferred exams for candidates in large-scale exams in other jurisdictions.

Instead, most countries which run end-of-school exams tend to provide predicted grades or other forms of special consideration for candidates who miss them for health or bereavement reasons.

Another key factor in helping to expedite the marking of exams is to increase the pool of teachers willing to grade papers during the summer holidays.

The number of examiners has been falling each year since 2016 as candidate numbers have been growing.

Examiner shortage

Latest figures show the number of Leaving Cert examiners available for 2022 was down 19 per cent on a decade ago, while the number of Junior Cycle examiners was down 38 per cent.

Over the same period, the number of candidates in the Leaving Cert was up by 12 per cent and 5 per cent in Junior Cycle.

Despite an increase in fees per script of between 17 and 57 per cent last year, the number of examiners dipped again last year. Pay rates for examiners for a typical 26-day contract marking between 200 and 350 exam papers ranged from €3,000 to €8,000, before tax.

Officials believe the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic exacerbated teacher shortages last year, with a combination of exhaustion and pent-up demand to go on holidays for the first time since 2019, in many cases.

The State Examinations Commission has said the recruitment and retention of teachers as examiners is a “major and urgent whole-of-system issue” across second level.

It said last year that addressing the issue requires the active support and involvement of all the players, especially school management and teachers’ unions, as well as the continued support of the Department of Education which has improved examiner rates.

It is aiming to “substantially increase” the number of teachers involved this year so the marking experience is a positive one which enhances teacher professional competence as well as earning power.