Ninth Level Ireland

“When third-level college places were announced last week, my social media was quickly flooded with images of excited young adults about to embark on the next stage of their education. Like most years, these images came a week after a stream of news stories on the ‘600-plus points’ students who were rightly celebrated in the national media …” (more)

[Colman Noctor, Irish Examiner, 14 September]

“Sir, – On the front page of the Irish Times on September 8th, the university registrars cite ‘grade inflation’ as the source of ‘cruelty’ inflicted on disappointed young people seeking to enter college (‘Call to tackle “cruel” grade inflation as college points hit new high’, News, September 8th) …” (more)

[Tomás Ó Ruairc, Irish Times, 13 September]

“Significant numbers of Leaving Cert students have not received any college offers after failing to spot ‘urgent’ emails from the CAO alerting them to errors or omissions in their applications. In many cases, the affected students secured the points required for their first-choice courses but lost out because their exam numbers were not recorded on the CAO system …” (more)

[Carl O’Brien, Irish Times, 9 September]

“… The reason for this inflation is obvious: The department of education, fearful that it would be blamed by some parents if their children did not do well in the context of a year of school closures, instructed that those marking the examinations should take the lockdown and the impact of school closures into account. Formally and informally, up and down the examinations process, political pressure was exerted to make sure that people’s ‘hard work’ was recognised and rewarded. The result is record high marks. But of course, record high marks have disastrous consequences …” (more)

[John McGuirk, Gript, 9 September]

“Leaving Cert grades look set to return to more normal levels in next year’s exams, down from record highs of the past two years. Minister for Education Norma Foley said on Wednesday that a return to more traditional assessments next year, without school-estimated grades, is likely to see a return to more normal patterns of achievement …” (more)

[Carl O’Brien, Irish Times, 8 September]

“There ‘must be a better way’ to decide on third-level admissions than the Leaving Cert, the Minister for Further Education has said. Speaking in Dublin on Wednesday, Simon Harris said he is not sure the current exam and points race is ‘the right way to go’, referring to the fact that a number of students who achieved maximum marks in the Leaving Cert could still miss out on their preferred course due to their being more students applying than places available …” (more)

[Paul Hosford, Irish Examiner, 8 September]

“Yesterday the Central Admissions Office released the first round offers for entry to Irish Universities; today the details appeared in the Irish newspapers. I don’t usually buy a newspaper on a weekday but I couldn’t resist getting a copy of the Irish Times so I could pore over the information presented in the CAO supplement, of which the picture above shows only a part …” (more)

[In the Dark, 8 September]

“High levels of grade inflation in the Leaving Cert exams are ‘cruel’ and need to return to normal next year, according to universities. Pól Ó Dochartaigh, deputy president of NUI Galway and chairman of the CAO, said too many students on high points lost out on their chosen courses due to record high grades this year …” (more)

[Carl O’Brien, Irish Times, 8 September]

“CAO points for entry into many college courses have jumped to a record high, with some students failing to get into courses despite securing more than 600 points. About 20 college courses across universities such as Trinity, UCD, DCU, NUI Galway, RCSI and UL broke the 600-point barrier this year. This is up from seven courses last year and just one the year before …” (more)

[Carl O’Brien, Irish Times, 7 September]

“Some students who received more than 600 points in their Leaving Cert may miss out on their first-choice course in the first round of CAO offers on Tuesday because of grade inflation. CAO points for university and college courses are set to increase when offers are made in the first round due to a record number of students securing the highest grades in this year’s Leaving Cert …” (more)

[Simon Carswell, Irish Times, 7 September]

“The minister for higher education is set to overhaul the CAO system to include further education and apprenticeships. From November, the CAO website will be revamped to include those areas in a bid to ease what has been dubbed the ‘points race’ …” (more)

[Paul Hosford, Irish Examiner, 6 September]

“Pol Ó Dochartaigh, Deputy President of NUI Galway and Chair of the CAO, has said the ‘hard reality’ is some students will not be successful in securing their first choice. Speaking on RTÉ’s This Week, he said the Leaving Certificate points have gone up and therefore the demand for the places has gone up …” (more)

[RTÉ News, 5 September]

“The Government is aiming to ensure about three-quarters of all CAO applicants will get one of their top-three choices when college offers are released on Tuesday afternoon. A combination of record-breaking Leaving Certificate results and higher numbers of college applicants – 84,000 – are expected to push CAO points higher for many courses on Tuesday …” (more)

[Carl O’Brien and Ronan McGreevy, Irish Times, 5 September]

“There is evidence of ‘unconscious bias’ in favour of girls in the estimated marks provided by schools for this year’s Leaving Cert students, according to an official analysis of grades. A report by the State Examinations Commission (SEC) says while female students do better on average than males in exams, the gender gap was wider in school estimates compared to traditional exams …” (more)

[Carl O’Brien, Irish Times, 6 September]

“It’s ‘inevitable’ that points for college courses will increase following the record-breaking results in this years’ Leaving Cert, the chair of the Central Applications Office (CAO) has said …” (more)

[TheJournal.ie, 5 September]

“Universities fear they will have to restrict entry to more high-points courses on the basis of ‘random selection’ this year due to record-breaking Leaving Cert results. Results this year climbed to a new high with a sharp increase in the number of students securing top H1 grades …” (more)

[Carl O’Brien, Irish Times, 4 September]

“‘We’re thrilled with the results – they are record-breaking’, beamed Yvonne O’Toole, principal of the Institute of Education in Dublin, shortly after the school’s Leaving Cert results appeared on her computer screen. ‘As a school, we’re like a community. We cried with excitement when we saw them’ …” (more)

[Carl O’Brien, Irish Times, 4 September]

“In any ordinary year, Leaving Cert grades stay roughly the same, with the bell curve ensuring no significant deviation. Last year, with the Leaving Cert cancelled and teachers estimating their students’ marks, everyone anticipated that the number of top grades would rise – and it did …” (more)

[Peter McGuire, Irish Times, 3 September]

“Another record set of Leaving Cert grades will drive up points for college entry when CAO offers are made next week. More than 61,000 Leaving Cert candidates are today receiving results that show an average 2.6% grade inflation on last year …” (more)

[Katherine Donnelly, Independent, 3 September]

“Exam chiefs cannot give a guarantee of when the results of any Leaving Cert appeals will be known. It could have implications for students to secure a desired college place, if they were not eligible for it in the normal CAO rounds …” (more)

[Katherine Donnelly, Independent, 26 August]