Students awaiting the results of their Leaving Certificate appeals will now be informed of the outcome three weeks earlier, as of next year.
Other changes include an earlier date for the release of Leaving Certificate results and CAO offers.
The changes come in the wake of Wexford student Rebecca Carter's High Court case. Carter realised that while she awaited her appealed for a grade on her business paper, the result would come too late for University College Dublin to admit her to their veterinary degree programme.
State Examinations Commission (SEC) from next year will issue results on Tuesday, August 13 while CAO Round 1 offers will be released on Friday August 16, three days earlier than normal.
Students will now learn the results of their appeals between September 18 and 20, as opposed to October 10.
Third-level institutions have also agreed that there will be no first year undergraduate academic classes commencing earlier than the second week of September, to accommodate appeals.
It is reportedly hoped that the exam marking system will be changed from a paper-based to an online model over the next three years. This could bring forward the results even more, and would potentially help reduce human error.
While the current appeals process takes around eight weeks, the changes announced could reduce this to only five weeks.
Mr. Justice Humphreys, in his ruling, stated that the current system was highly unfair to students and also said that he wants to observe the changes by next year.
He also ordered the SEC to accelerate completion of the appeal process on behalf of Ms Carter, who was offered a place in UCD's veterinary programme on September 28 after her appeal was successful.
Mr Justice Richard Humphreys said the state exams appeals process was highly unfair and caused untold stress to Leaving Cert students waiting to hear if they had won a place at university. He said the situation that had arisen in the case should not be repeated next year.
— Orla O'Donnell (@Orlaodo) September 26, 2018
The 18-year-old repeated her Leaving Cert and was only six marks short of the points required to study veterinary medicine in UCD, and a mere one point short when the second round offers were released.
After reviewing her papers, it was discovered that the examiner had wrongly totted up her marks in her business paper.
Minister for Education Joe McHugh commented that the implementation of the changes which would “require support and assistance from schools and examination correctors to ensure it can be done”.
Let's hope that this fundamental re-engineering of the system will bring positive changes.
