Ninth Level Ireland

“Sir, – Once again we appear to be going through the annual hand wringing exercise about the Leaving Cert (Letters, November 17th). This time however it may be preferable to consider the lessons of the pandemic, and avoid a clamour for solutions that increase rather than decrease the level of unfairness we subject second-level students to …” (more)

[Albert Winston, Irish Times, 19 November]

“If you’re a student, parent or employer seeking urgent and sweeping changes to the Leaving Cert, then look away now. A major advisory report on proposals to reshape the senior cycle – due to be published by the Minister for Education shortly – advocates the kind of incremental reform that will likely take years to draw up, never mind fully implement …” (more)

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

“The Central Applications Office (CAO) points system will need to be revised to reflect a wider range of students’ skills and learning pathways, according to a major report on senior-cycle reform to be published shortly …” (more)

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

“Universities must review the CAO points system to ensure it recognises a wider range of students’ skills or risk losing public funding, Minister for Further and Higher Education Simon Harris has warned …” (more)

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

“Irish language groups and students are seeking maths-style CAO bonus points for the highest-achieving students in Gaeilge as part of a new plan for the subject at Leaving Cert …” (more)

[Katherine Donnelly, Independent, 3 November]

“Universities say timelines for the release of Leaving Cert results are ‘no longer fit for purpose’ and want students to be issued their grades at the end of June, followed by college offers in July …” (more)

[Carl O’Brien, Irish Times, 18 October]

“Universities say timelines for the release of Leaving Cert results are ‘no longer fit for purpose’ and want students to be issued their grades at the end of June, followed by college offers in July. The Irish Universities Association – which represents eight of the largest universities – is also calling for an immediate end to ‘distorting’ grade inflation and a return to normal grade patterns …” (more)

[Carl O’Brien, Irish Times, 18 October]

“Students will be able to choose between university and further education courses through a single CAO portal for the first time from next month. Minister for Further and Higher Education Simon Harris said the new service will broaden the conversation around career and study options beyond our current ‘obsession’ with higher education and the points race …” (more)

[Carl O’Brien, Irish Times, 13 October]

“The Union of Students in Ireland (USI) and the Irish Universities Association (IUA) have expressed disappointment Budget 2022, arguing that more needs to be done for the third-level sector …” (more)

[Mairead Maguire, University Times, 12 October]

“Up to 750 college applicants did not get college places in round one of this year’s CAO offers due to errors or commissions in their applications. Students reported last month that they had failed to spot ‘urgent’ emails from the CAO alerting them to issues with their applications …” (more)

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

“Has the CAO points system run its course? Earlier this month, Simon Harris, the Minister for Further and Higher Education, questioned if the points system is the right way to go, stating that it is ‘not the international norm’ …” (more)

[Peter McGuire, Irish Times, 28 September]

“Half of Leaving Certificate students in 2021 received their first preference college place while a further 20% got their second choice. The research from iReach found 42% of students attained over 500 points in this year’s Leaving Cert when students for the first time had the choice of whether they wished to sit written exams for receive calculated grades from their teachers …” (more)

[BreakingNews.ie, 27 September]

“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]