Leaving Cert students must ‘opt in’ to receive calculated grades

Leaving Cert students will not automatically receive calculated grades but will have to to opt-in for them under a new online system being set up to manage the cancellation of exams.

Students will also have the opportunity to re-nominate their subject levels - such as higher, ordinary and foundation - at which they wish to receive their calculated grades, according to well-placed sources.

Online training is due to be provided to teachers regarding the new process over the coming days, along with detailed written guidance from the Department of Education.

These steps are expected to be outlined in official guidance for use of calculated grades to be issued to schools and teachers on Thursday.

Teachers’ unions have expressed their disappointment to the department that these arrangements are not in place yet given that the academic year is finished at the end of May.

Under the terms of their contracts, however, teachers are required to be available for non-teaching work in schools beyond this point, where necessary.

Following the Government's decision earlier this month to cancel the summer Leaving Cert exams, more than 60,000 students are set to receive calculated grades for the first time based on teachers’ estimates.

Under this approach, teachers will be asked to provide an estimated percentage mark for each student for each subject. Students will also be placed in a rank over for their class.

The guidance will state that teachers should draw on “existing records and available evidence” such as classwork, homework, class assessments, Christmas and summer exams and mock exams. Junior Cert results will not be considered.

Teachers will be required to provide a “fair, reasonable and carefully considered” judgement of the likely percentage mark each student would have achieved if they had sat their exams and completed coursework under normal conditions.

Marking system

In order to determine where students rank individually in a class, each student may be marked out of 1,000 and these scores will then be converted to per centages.

These grades will then be sent to the Department of Education where a unit will compare information on how students in the school have fared in particular subjects in the Leaving Cert over the past three years compared to the national standard.

Sources also said that teachers will be directed to declare conflicts of interest when grading Leaving Cert students who are close family members under official guidance to be issued shortly.

In such circumstances, another teacher in the school or the deputy principal may be asked to examine available evidence of a student’s performance and mark the candidate accordingly.

In cases where students who are studying a subject outside a recognised school, Mr McHugh has signalled that these students will be examined on a case-by-case basis.

A total of 2,858 external candidates are entered to sit the Leaving Cert this year, many of whom are studying in an alternative setting such as a private college.

For students in receipt of home tuition with an association to a recognised school, the guidance will provide information for school authorities to engage with the home tutor in arriving at a decision.

Whether a valid estimate of performance can be provided will depend on whether the home tutor is a registered teacher and where the school is satisfied with the evidence used to support the judgment.

In cases where a student has moved school recently and the length of time is such that the teacher considers that they do not have enough evidence to make a sound judgement, the guidance will state that the teacher should consult school management about acquiring additional information from the student’s previous school.