Invigilator Padraig Carbury hands out Leaving Certificate exams at O'Connell Secondary School on North Richmond St in Dublin on 8 June 2022 Image: Mark Stedman/RollingNews.ie Invigilator Padraig Carbury hands out Leaving Certificate exams at O'Connell Secondary School on North Richmond St in Dublin on 8 June 2022 Image: Mark Stedman/RollingNews.ie Updated 51 minutes ago
“This has been a significant undertaking in the current year in light of the ongoing effects of Covid-19 on schools; candidates; contract staff and the staff of the SEC. Some 131,000 candidates are undertaking examinations this year, an increase of 6% compared to the last time a full set of examinations was run in 2019.
For a start, it’s difficult to understand how merely holding deferred exams for a small minority of students could contribute to any delay. Further, the SEC has known about a shortage of examiners for quite some time. It is worth asking, what has the SEC actually done to address this perennial issue? “Finally, an assurance that grades would be kept at 2021 levels certainly adds some additional complexity to this year’s exams.
“This earlier start is to provide additional supports and assistance. Delaying the Leaving Cert results could seriously impact these hugely important orientation programmes.“The SEC has had a long time to prepare for this year’s Leaving Cert results. It is unacceptable that it failed to do so – and that students are paying the price of that failure,” Gannon stated.
“Every student should have the maximum opportunity to showcase their talents”, she said, adding “if we could magic up another date that would be done”. Due to the pandemic, students in 2020 and 2021 had the option of sitting the written exams in June or receiving calculated or “accredited grades” instead.