Micheál Martin has told the Dail that “two errors” have been identified in the system used to calculate leaving cert grades this year.
The errors, which the Taoiseach stated were related to “coding”, could impact around 10% of the 61,000 students who received their grades on September 7.
Martin said that the changes made to some students’ grades as a result of the errors being identified would be “upgrades” and that the department of education is currently working to contact those to have been affected.
Education minister Norma Foley is expected to make a more comprehensive statement on the situation later today (Wednesday).
This year’s Leaving Certificate results were the highest ever on record, with grades on average 4.4% higher than the previous year.
A week before the results came out the government approved the removal of schools’ previous Leaving Certificate performance from the standardization model, with concerns that this would disproportionately lower the grades of students from disadvantaged areas.
It is not yet known how colleges will respond to students who have their marks upgraded and may wish to take up a place at university that they missed out on due to the system error.
The government announced in May that this year’s Leaving Cert exams would not go ahead and that students would be given a choice between receiving calculated grades based on a combination of teacher predictions and a standardization process, or delay the sitting of their exams to a time when that would be possible.
