All students who originally missed out on their first choice on their CAO application due to errors in the calculated grades system have today been offered a place in their preferred course for the current academic year.
Minister for Higher Education Simon Harris said today on Twitter: “I said that we would move mountains to ensure students who had errors in calculated grades were given the places they deserved.”
“The CAO identified that 424 students required new offers. I am delighted that this morning all 424 have been offered a place for this academic year.”
Harris praised the “higher education partners for their work”, saying that their “can-do attitude & focus on finding solutions was key to getting this resolved and doing right by these students”.
The higher education sector was shaken by the revelations last week that 6,500 students may have received incorrect grades in this year’s leaving certificate due to two coding errors in the calculated grades system.
According to Polymetrika – the company that ran the calculated grades system – 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.
After the errors were announced, Minister for Education Norma Foley said that all students who missed out on their first choice in the CAO as a result of the errors would be given a place in that course. However, she added that some students may only be able to enter that course next year, if colleges could not make space.
Harris said last week said that colleges may have to create 1,000 more places to facilitate the influx of students, according to the Irish Examiner. His comments came after a summer of pumping thousands of new places into the third-level sector.
