The Leaving Cert class of 2020 is celebrating the best results day ever, with average grade inflation of more than 4% after teachers assessed their own pupils when the exams were cancelled because of the pandemic.
The increase in grade values would have been greater had the teachers’ generosity not been curbed by the process set up to keep the national results picture broadly comparable with previous years.
At higher level, every subject achieved more H1 grades than last year or the year before. H1 being marks ranging from 90-100 percent.
Overall, 8.9% of grades in higher-level subjects were H1s, compared with an average 5.6% over the past three years. It would have been 13.4% had many teachers’ marks not been reduced.
The bumper set of grades will drive up CAO points but college applicants from this year’s Leaving Cert class have a competitive edge.
A huge concern this morning will be how the results will affect the CAO applicants from the Leaving Cert class of 2019 and previous years who are competing with them for college offers.
Efforts are intensifying to create more college places so as many students as possible get one of their top choices.
Last week, Further and Higher Education Minister Simon Harris announced an additional 1,250 places but talk amongst MummyPages mums is that this will be far from enough.
Education Minister Foley said the final set of results was “the fairest possible solution given the extraordinary circumstances in which we find ourselves as we journey together through the Covid-19 pandemic”.
One measure used was a comparison with the Junior Cert results of the 2020 Leaving Cert candidates. Plans to use data on schools' historical performance in the Leaving Cert was abandoned because of fears it would be unfair to students in schools in disadvantaged communities.
The focus now switches to CAO Round 1 offers on Friday and how that will play out in the face of the bumper 2020 grades. A widespread rise in points can be expected.
