Criticism grows against inflated Leaving Certificate grades

Irish universities, students and their parents have criticised the continued use of inflated grades in the Leaving Certificate examination which students sit for at the end of their secondary schooling.

Grades have been inflated since 2020 because of COVID but, unlike other countries which made similar arrangements, Ireland has delayed returning to a normal distribution pattern. Most of this year’s results were again about 7.5% higher than in 2019.

Next year will see the start of an unwinding process, but the results will still be at least 5.5% higher than normal.

The grades are the main currency for entry to higher education in Ireland; inflation has caused problems not just for Irish students, but also for Northern Ireland and EU applicants to Irish universities.

A breach of EU rules?

Among those affected are the sons and daughters of Irish diplomats and others working overseas who take the European Baccalaureate in European Schools; these schools are jointly supervised or run by EU member states.

A group of parents working in Brussels has written to Minister for Education Norma Foley suggesting that Ireland might be in breach of the Convention defining the Statute of the European Schools.

This states that “holders of the European Baccalaureate shall be entitled to seek admission to any university in the territory of any Member State on the same terms as nationals of that Member State with equivalent qualifications”.

The vice-provost of Trinity College Dublin Professor Orla Sheils said that the continued use of grade inflation had many unintended consequences.

“It seriously disadvantages those students from Northern Ireland and abroad who are left competing in an uneven playing field, given their results have returned to pre-pandemic levels,” she said.

Lottery system

However, it is the effect on some Irish applicants that has caught the public's attention. Almost 1,000 students received the maximum grades possible, compared with around 200 in pre-pandemic years.

This made it difficult for universities to choose between applicants for high demand courses.

Said Sheils: “The increased number of students who achieve or exceed the required points for popular courses also introduces a lottery system for allocation of places. This is a cruel arbiter when students have worked so hard.” More than 20 courses had to use lotteries this year.

It’s the personal stories that reveal the sacrifices some students made and their disappointment at not getting into the courses they really wanted.

For instance, Konstantin Punic, from Baldoyle in north Dublin, had given up his football and boxing training with just one aim in mind: to get into economics and finance at University College Dublin.

He couldn’t benefit from inflated grades as he had already scored the maximum in his exam. But he missed out on his first choice when successful candidates were chosen by lottery.

“I thought I had done enough – I couldn’t actually do any more. I just feel hard done by. It’s very disheartening and deflating. You’re told that if you get the results, you’ll get the course. Now, I feel like I’m in no man’s land. The system doesn’t feel fair. Leaving a course down to random chance isn’t fair,” he told The Irish Times.

His choices are limited: apply next year, hope he gets his top choice in the second round of offers, or accept a course lower down his list of preferences.