Trinity will try its best to find places for leaving certificate students who were incorrectly graded under the calculated grades system if the government fully funds them, College has said.
The announcement comes after it was revealed today that two errors had occurred in the calculated grades system, which have likely affected around 6,500 students.
Minister for Education Norma Foley announced that students who would have been entitled to a higher preference in their CAO results if errors had not occurred in the calculated grades system will now be offered a place in that course.
“This is about helping those students awarded new grades”, Provost Patrick Prendergast said in a statement to The University Times. “We are prepared to do anything in our power to find places for them if those places are fully funded by Government”, he added.
Speaking to The University Times, Catherine O’Mahony, a Trinity media relations officer said: “It goes without saying that any students admitted to Trinity can remain in Trinity.”
The government has said that it will work with the CAO and higher education institutions to facilitate students moving into a higher preference course after they have received their correct results.
No students will see their points decrease as a result of the errors in the calculated grades system.
In a press statement, Foley said: “I want to say how sorry I am that this has happened. My immediate priority is to fix the errors and their consequences so that students get their correct grades.”
Polymetrika International Inc., the external contractors responsible for coding the standardisation process, told the Department of Education last week that two errors had been discovered in the same part of the code.
According to Polymetrika, the first error was in a single line of code, which affected the way a candidate’s junior certificate results were included in the standardisation process.
Junior certificate results in Irish, Maths and English are included in the standardisation data, along with the results for the candidates next two best subjects. The error instead included candidates’ two weakest subjects instead of their best. Polymetrika has since corrected the code.
The Department discovered a second error while performing checks related to rectifying the first error. This error was found in the same section of code programmed by Polymetrika.
The second error mistakenly factored in candidates’ junior certificate results in Civic, Social and Political Education into the data model. This coding error has also subsequently been corrected.
The Department has also contracted Educational Testing Service, a world-leading US-based non-profit organisation which specialises in educational measurement, to review essential aspects of the coding.
