Just six months ago, at the beginning of March, the idea of cancelling the June Leaving Certificate exams, and putting in place an alternative system for this year's cohort, would have been unthinkable.
The teacher’s marks and rankings were then collated by the school and sent to the Department of Education.The predictions from schools were combined with a second set of data: Junior Certificate results. Research shows that while Junior Cert results are good predictors of Leaving Cert results, they are not strong enough by themselves to estimate an individual’s performance. For this last reason, it was decided that no individual’s calculated grade would be determined by how they had performed at Junior Cycle.
There were other checks and balances too. If a student’s grade was reduced by two grades or more for instance , then the Department of Education went back to the school data to check it again.To this question, the Department of Education returns again to the fact that many teachers overestimated marks for their students, giving them what they might have received on a "good day" with the "right questions" appearing on a paper. Others underestimated.
Going through the aggregate data provided by the department, some of these students are visible in their absence. Most schools have made arrangements for students to phone or drop in to talk to a guidance counsellor or a teacher.