This year’s leaving certificate exams will not take place this summer, the government announced this afternoon, with calculated grades likely to be used by most students rather than exams.
Minister for Education Joe McHugh today announced that the leaving certificate exams – previously pencilled in for July – won’t be run at that stage, with students given the option to receive calculated grades or sit their exams at a later date.
McHugh, who brought a proposal to adopt the new grading system to cabinet this afternoon, said the exams themselves could take place in the autumn, but added that it’s not yet clear when it will be possible to run them.
Provisional results will be issued to the CAO in early September, meaning it’s unclear when colleges will be able to admit incoming freshers.
Calculated grades will be awarded to students on the basis of a number of factors – such as class rankings, students’ performance in previous assessments and other indicators.
While teachers appear to be primarily responsible for deciding these grades, the school principal and senior management will oversee the process and the grades will be filtered through a number of people before being finalised.
However, the later date proposed for sitting the leaving certificate exams will be too late for students to begin their chosen courses.
McHugh said: “I have made every effort to run the 2020 leaving certificate as close as possible to the way the examinations were originally intended to be held.”
“Let’s call a spade a spade – I have massive reservations around this”, he said. “This is not a perfect solution.”
But he added that “in a final analysis, the interests of the students must come first”.
