State school exam grades getting better, report finds

LEAVING AND Junior Cert students are continuing to secure higher grades in both exams – despite the alarming drop reported by the OECD in literacy and numeracy standards in Ireland.

The trend will revive charges of grade inflation, leading to claims both exams are being “dumbed down”.

Figures released by the State Exams Commission (SEC) show a dramatic improvement in grades achieved by higher-level students in the 10 most popular Leaving Cert subjects since 2000. Junior Cert grades have also improved significantly over the same period.

The trend appears to contradict the most recent OECD/Pisa results which indicate a dramatic decline in academic standards among Irish teenagers since 2000. In the reading test, Ireland’s ranking fell from 5th place in 2000 to 17th in 2009.

This decline was the largest among 39 countries surveyed. On maths, Ireland ranked a lowly 32nd among 65 participating countries.

Minister for Education Ruairí Quinn has described these rankings as a “wake up” call for Irish education.

In stark contrast, Leaving and Junior Cert results point to ever-improving performance by Irish students. For example, in English, the percentage of students gaining an A, B or C on a higher level paper has increased from 65 per cent in 2000 to 76 per cent last year.

In maths, the ABC rate has increased from 74 to 80 per cent while the ABC rate has also increased over this period in every one of the other most popular subject – including a 10 per cent increase in history and a 7 per cent increase in business.

A broadly similar pattern is evident in Junior Cert results where the ABC rate for higher level English has increased from 71 per cent in 2000 to 77 per cent in 2009. In maths, the ABC rate has increased from 69 per cent in 2000 to 76 per cent in 2009.

On literacy, only a tiny percentage of students failed either ordinary or foundation level English in the Junior Cert exam – even though the OECD reported that close to 25 per cent of Irish 15-year-old males were “functionally illiterate”.

The report is internationally recognised as the most reliable guide to academic standards. Almost 4,000 Irish students were assessed in 2009.

The commission continues to insist there has been no diminution of standards in the Leaving or Junior Cert exams. Last year, the chief examiner in English concluded: “There has been no discernible diminution of standards in literacy in the Junior Cert over the past decade. In fact ... a welcome consistency was found when comparing scripts across the same grade bands...’’

In a recent review of teacher education in Ireland, Prof Áine Hyland, emeritus professor of education at University College Cork, concludes that it was the deterioration in the attainment of Irish 15-year-olds between 2000 and 2009, as indicated in the Pisa tests, that led the Government to re-appraise the teaching of literacy and numeracy in Irish schools and to issue the new national strategy to improve literacy and numeracy.

Teacher unions have said the decline in literacy and numeracy standards can be traced back to the increase in the immigrant population from 2 to 8 per cent in the decade 2000-2010.

However, new research from the Education Research Centre at St Patrick’s College, Drumcondra, Dublin, appears to question this.

It says the differences (in academic performance) between immigrant and non-immigrant students in the Pisa tests in Ireland are comparatively small – in contrast with many other countries, such as France, Germany and the Netherlands.