Reforming the Leaving Certificate: Important Next Steps

With the 2022 Leaving Certificate exams only weeks away, IUA’s Lewis Purser highlights the need for clarity on a date for Leaving Certificate results and why exams should take place earlier than June each year.

While Minister for Education Norma Foley recently announced welcome plans for the redevelopment of the Senior Cycle of education for post-primary students, based on the review of the Senior Cycle by the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NCCA), we are still waiting for concrete news regarding when the 2022 Leaving Certificate results will be published.

Representatives from across second and third level, including the IUA have called for clarity on the date when students will receive these all-important results (See RTE article here). In 2020 and 2021 results were published much later than usual because of the disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, but this should no longer be considered a valid reason for delays in 2022.

The stated ambition of Minister Foley’s Senior Cycle reform, to deliver a student-centred approach, is laudable. Her objectives are to empower students to meet the challenges of the 21st century, to enrich the student experience and to reduce students’ stress levels.

The design of this approach will also enable students to follow a broad curriculum, develop their interests and skills, and participate in a final assessment process in line with best international practice. All of this should help smooth the path of students towards their next phase of life, be it higher education, further education and training or the world of work. The proposals have been informed by the NCCA Review which had been underway since 2016 and are strongly supported by the Irish universities.

The range of recommendations covers new curricula and subject content, the introduction of new Leaving Certificate subjects (early preparations for which have already begun), changing the assessment procedures, staggering the timing of examinations and a new qualification to provide appropriate assessment for students with special needs.

A mission critical dimension of the reforms is to fundamentally change the “all or nothing” format of the Leaving Certificate exams. For some years now, universities have been critical of the heavy weighting of the final exams, advocating strongly for a more authentic assessment and a broader range of assessment methods across all subjects, including English and Mathematics, that genuinely reflects the learning and thinking of the student.

The significant experience developed by teachers over the past two years due to the pandemic, providing alternative in-school evidence of student achievement and standards, should be built on. While the enforced pivot undoubtedly had shortcomings, most notably grade inflation, the lessons learned are valuable. It would be a mistake not to build on these just because the measures were forced on the system due to public health imperatives.

As the Senior Cycle reforms are progressed, it is also important for students across the country that the results of Leaving Certificate assessments are stable year on year, so that entry to higher education works equitably for those who choose to apply.

Significant variation in grades year on year, as we have seen over the last two Leaving Certificate years, is unfair on students in that there is no longer a level playing field for applicants from different years. State-accredited grades (i.e. the Leaving Certificate and Further Education and Training qualifications) are the most viable basis on which to build an equitable system for entry to higher education, when there are not enough places for everyone.

Given that Minister Foley has correctly placed a significant onus on delivery of a student-centred approach, a significant further obstacle must be removed in pursuing this objective - the inordinate time it takes to publish the Leaving Certificate results.

In a normal year, Leaving Certificate exams are over by the end of June but results are not published until the middle of August. Ireland is a complete outlier in Europe in this regard, with significant negative knock-on effects for students and their families in terms of study or work options in Ireland or further afield, seeking accommodation and making all the necessary arrangements. And in the case of any disruption, as during Covid and unfortunately in all likelihood again in 2022, results are not published until early September.

All this imposes increased stress, delaying the start of the university academic year for new students, with further disruption for tens of thousands of students and their families. All of this is completely unsustainable, unfair on students, and unnecessary when compared to good practice across multiple other European countries. The universities have repeatedly requested this situation to be addressed. The opportunity and momentum of Senior Cycle reform is now the moment to grasp this nettle and fix it.

We look forward to working in a collaborative and meaningful way with all relevant stakeholders to this ensure the success of this essential Senior Cycle reform process. It’s been a long time coming. It’s now incumbent on us all to make a real difference for future generations of Senior Cycle students. 

By Lewis Purser, Director, Learning & Teaching and Academic Affairs, Irish Universities Association.