Imperative that grading model for Leaving Cert is published - Mayo TD

MAYO TD Rose Conway-Walsh and Sinn Féin spokesperson on Higher Education has called on the government to be ‘up front’ with students and parents on plans for Leaving Certificate grades.

Speaking after an event in Ballina, she said: “The Minister for Education, Norma Foley, must immediately and urgently publish the grading model used for calculated grades.

"Hearing the stories of distraught students and parents receiving their A Level results in Northern Ireland is shocking and disturbing.

“Sinn Féin has repeatedly asked the Minister for Education to release the details of how students will be graded. Yet, we still have no clarity weeks out from the release date for results.

“I can tell you from my own experience that students and parents are anxious because they feel they are being kept in the dark.

"They are being told by the government not to worry, that the system will be fair - but then told nothing about how this will be done.

“People see what has happened in Scotland and are justified in asking questions.

"The chaotic start that this government has had here means that confidence simply is not there that the government can deliver this in a fair way.

“Parents and students need a guarantee from the Minister that grades won’t be based on where you went to school. Plain and simple.

“There is a very good reason that the Leaving Certificate is normally graded anonymously.

"It is to ensure that bias or prejudice doesn’t enter into calculating the grades. That needs to apply this year just as much as any other year.

“This doesn’t have to be a zero-sum game where someone loses out. IT’s and universities should be supported to expand programmes for more students to be able to do the courses they want.

“We are facing higher youth unemployment and financially struggling institutes of further and higher education due to Covid-19.

“Each third level institution gets funding for each student that they take in. If the government has the will and the vision, this can be an opportunity to let students pursue the education they want and fund our third level institutes.

“We cannot afford to leave students behind by penalising them based on an unknown curve and unpublished model,” she added/