Towards a Better Future

Chapter Five: Transition from Second Level to Higher Education
since then, a 14-point scale has been used: (A1, A2, B1, B2, B3, C1, C2, C3, D1, D2, D3, E, F). From
2017 onwards, a less detailed grading scheme (based on eight grades) will be used to indicate a candidate’s
results. However, there will be no change in the way in which examiners will return results to the SEC
– examiners will continue, as they have always done, to return results as raw scores.
Is the Leaving Certificate fair and equitable?
One of the often-mentioned attributes of the Leaving Certificate is its fairness. All candidates,
whatever their social, cultural or economic background, follow the same syllabi and are assessed in
the same way. No student, teacher or examiner has access to the examination papers in advance of
the examination. Candidates’ scripts are anonymous from an examiner’s perspective – the examiner
does not know whose scripts s/he has marked, what school they attend or what part of the country
they come from. As the examinations are taken in rigorously-supervised conditions, the public can
be confident that the scripts are entirely the candidate’s own work, that no assistance has been given
and that no plagiarism has occurred. The penalties for cheating are very severe and only a tiny
number of candidates have been found cheating over the years.
However, not all students fare equally in the examination stakes. Students who excel linguistically
and logically are at a significant advantage. The terminal written examinations place a very heavy
emphasis on two of Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences – the logical/mathematical and the linguistic
– often to the detriment of other intelligences (Gardner, 2006) 7 . A better alignment between the
syllabus aims and their assessment would require more varied modes of assessment, which in turn
would encourage the development, and application of other skills and intelligences.
Students from higher socio-economic backgrounds achieve better Leaving Certificate results than
their less socially-privileged peers. In schools with a high concentration of students from lower
socio-economic backgrounds (e.g. DEIS schools), overall examination results are generally poorer
than in schools where there is a broader social mix of students. This can be due to the fact that such
schools have a higher proportion of students with literacy and numeracy problems; or that student
motivation may be lower or that the expectations of parents and teachers might be more limited.
These factors may also be exacerbated by the fact that some schools in less advantaged areas
sometimes offer fewer Leaving Certificate subjects at higher level, especially in the STEM area. In
addition, students from lower socio-economic groups are less likely to be in a position to pay for
additional out-of-school coaching or grinds, which can enhance a student’s confidence and their
performance in the Leaving Certificate examination (Smyth et al., 2015).
7 Gardner posits that each individual possesses at least eight intelligences: - linguistic, visual, logical/mathematical, musical, bodily-kinaesthetic,
interpersonal, intrapersonal, and naturalist.
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