Grade inflation in the leaving certificate may lead to universities introducing entry exams in an attempt to avoid random allocation of college places.
Last year, results shot up when leaving certificate students were given the option of receiving calculated grades or sitting traditional exams – or both – for individual subjects.
The Irish University Association (IUA) Director of Learning, Teaching and Academic Affairs Lewis Purser told the Irish Independent that if inflated grades become “the new normal”, students may have to sit entry exams to avoid random allocation of college places as was seen last year.
“If the Leaving Cert isn’t a stable set of results, it becomes hugely problematic for everybody. The longer this goes on, the less suitable the leaving cert becomes as a way of determining entry to college.”
“If it was only a two-year blip, then we would suck it up”, said Purser. “But if it is going to become the new normal, then we would have to think about how do we determine entry to college — and how do we do it in such a way that they don’t have to do a whole lot of additional admissions tests, which I don’t think would be in anybody’s favour.”
The Irish Independent reported that government officials are “still exploring if there are other ways to run an accredited grades process” alongside written examinations in response to the continued impact of the pandemic on students’ education.
Teachers unions have pushed for the leaving certificate to go ahead in its traditional format this year.
Speaking on RTÉ’s News at One earlier this month, President of the Association of Secondary Teachers Eamon Dennehy said providing the option of accredited grades again this year would be “unfortunate and not helpful for students”.
“Of course, contingency plans should always be in place but as of now there is no reason to believe that the state exams can’t go ahead as planned”, he said.
“The position of the ASTI has always been to support the idea of external examination and the work that the State Examinations Commission does in that regard. It’s transparent, reliable and it’s extremely well done.”
The State Examinations Commission is expected to approve changes to exam papers that will give students more choice.
