Today, Minister for Further and Higher Education Simon Harris announced on Twitter the number of places to be offered to students who sat the delayed traditional Leaving Cert in November.
Posting on Twitter, Minister Harris announced that 554 level 8 college places will be offered to students today, to begin in the next academic year. Posting the update, Minister Harris commented that as well as the 554 level 8 places being made available, 37 level 6 and 7 places will also be made available to students.
Students who took the exam last November received their grades earlier this week.
These results come from the arrangements made for students to choose to sit the Leaving Certificate examination last November after the cancellation of the traditional Leaving Certificate in June due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
The grades taken from this sitting of the exams could then be combined with the predicted grades that most of these students received.
The final grade combined the best results from each calculation of the student’s grade. However, 39% of students who chose to sit the traditional examinations in November had their grades increased from the initial Calculated Grade they received.
Of the 2155 students that chose to sit the Leaving Certificate in November, 1700 also received Calculated Grades in the summer. However, roughly 460 students were unable to access their Calculated Grades, due to studying separate subjects outside of school or their decision to forgo the Calculated Grades.
In his update, Minister Harris announced that “institutions are in the process of contacting each student directly”. Each student will then be offered college places for the following college year.
Likewise, the Minister wished to express his congratulations to the students who received their grades earlier this week.
It is the current intention of the Minister for Education Norma Foley that students will sit a traditional Leaving Certificate this year. However, due to recent school closures, this decision is currently coming under pressure to be revised, with confirmation on Friday that students will be offered the choice of a traditional Leaving Certificate this year and a different form of assessment.
