Leaving Certificate 2020 Calculated Grades: Statements
Dail Éireann — 2020-10-01
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Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire (SF), Cork South-Central

The leaving certificate class of 2020 has been through a terrible ordeal. Every year the leaving certificate is difficult but no other leaving certificate class has had to contend with a pandemic, the postponement and cancellation of exams and the ongoing chaos of the calculated grading process.
Sinn Féin expressed serious reservations about calculated grading from the beginning. We argued for a different approach that would have focused on allowing as many students as possible to achieve their first choice course at third level and university-based assessment in courses with high competition. We communicated this in a detailed proposal to the then Minister, Deputy McHugh. When the Government was determined to stick with calculated grades, it became our priority to ensure maximum transparency and minimise the risk as much as possible. That is why we called for all the details of the model to be published before the results were released. I cannot help but wonder whether, if the Minister had published the algorithms much sooner and been transparent and open about the grading process instead of keeping it under lock and key, some of these issues might have been identified a lot sooner and the consequences less severe. Even if the Minister had communicated to us these errors when she learned of them seven days ago, it could have made a big difference to students who were waiting on round two CAO offers and to students who signed leases for student accommodation in the past week. The Minister knew that the consequences for many students would be massive. Why did she keep this information to herself and why did the Taoiseach do likewise?
I also want to ask how Polymetrika came to take up this job. We now know that it was not subject to tendering. We know that the company was well paid. It was meant to cost €71,500 and cost €163,000 in the end. How did Polymetrika come to be selected? What positive factors led to the Department choosing the company? Was it chosen because it was the cheapest option? This is a back-and-forth, question-and-answer session.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2020-10-01/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:48:38+00:00
Sitting date: 2020-10-01