‘Stressful’ and ‘selective’: OECD warns about Leaving Cert grade inflation and CAO process

Grade inflation in the Leaving Cert needs to be controlled to protect the integrity of the exam, according to an international study.

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) report also highlights how the CAO points system is unusual in the degree to which it is “particularly competitive” and “every single mark can be critical” for entry into college.

It says students report that the Leaving Cert is a period of “intense stress and pressure” as a result, and that exam pressure is limiting space for development of broader skills that are “critical for young people’s lifelong learning”.

It also notes a strong culture of private tuition to help students prepare for the exams with nearly half of young people, mostly from more advantaged backgrounds, reporting attending grinds.

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The findings are contained in an OECD report, Implementation of Ireland’s Leaving Certificate 2020-2021: Lessons from the Covid-19 Pandemic.

It was commissioned by the Department of Education after the traditional Leaving Cert exam was replaced with teacher-estimated grades in 2020 and a hybrid system in 2021 where students could choose between estimated grades or sitting the exam.

[ Four kinds of student are paying the price for unfair Leaving Cert grade inflation ]

The report says a consequence of changes to assessment during Covid was grade inflation in contrast to historic trends.

“Considering how to ensure that grade inflation is controlled for future generations taking the Leaving Certificate will be important for the assessment’s integrity and to discriminate between different levels of achievement,” the report states.

Minister for Education Norma Foley this year decided to keep grades inflated at the same levels as in 2021 and 2022.

While she has declined to say whether grades will begin to fall from next year, Minister for Further and Higher Education Simon Harris has signalled his support for a move back towards more normal patterns over the coming years.

When developing an alternative model of assessment during the pandemic, the OECD report found that the central role of the Leaving Cert for admission to third level in Ireland created a “high pressure” context with limited margin for error.

[ Repeating the Leaving Cert: a decision not to be taken lightly ]

In addition, it said the emphasis on written exams meant Ireland’s education system lacked the diversity of assessment in other countries, such as teacher-assessed work or continual assessment.

Despite these challenges, it found the Department of Education’s emergency solutions in 2020 and 2021 were “suitable alternatives given the context, health situation, limited time, lack of evidence and educational constraints” .

It said it reached its main goal of allowing senior cycle students to conclude their education and transition to either further and tertiary education or work.

For students, it reduced anxiety and stress and allowed use of other assessment approaches, while for teachers and schools, their empowerment was critical to deal with the emergency solutions.

[ Analysis: ‘Intense stress and pressure’: OECD report may provide signpost for Leaving Cert reform ]

“For the education system, it demonstrated strong collaboration and consensus in decision making on alternatives to the Leaving Certificate examinations.

“It helped to emphasise the strengths and challenges associated with the traditional Leaving Certificate and demonstrated the importance placed on the Leaving Certificate by Irish society in general as a signpost of the quality of the education system and its reliability to signal students’ accomplishments and general readiness to move into tertiary education,” it said.

“It also demonstrated the system’s fragility in times of emergency and uncertainty and showed how important an alternative approach or emergency solution can be.”

It said Ireland could take this into consideration in the future by planning pathways that do not limit students’ opportunities to finish the senior cycle to only a single approach – the Leaving Cert exams – and by putting in place a range of options to consider for times of emergency.