Stock image of students sitting exams(Image: Doug Corrance/Getty Images)

Junior Cert results: Grade inflation to be phased out 'bit by bit' starting next year

Nearly 73,000 students learned of their Junior Cycle performances when schools distributed 650,000 grades in 22 individual subjects yesterday.

10 Oct 2024, 05:00 by Sean Murphy · Irish Mirror

Thousands of kids got their Junior Cert results yesterday as the Education Minister confirmed grade inflation will be gradually phased out from next year.

Minister Norma Foley said there will be a “very small percentage drop” and that it will continue “over a number of years” in a phased change.

Nearly 73,000 students learned of their Junior Cycle performances when schools distributed 650,000 grades in 22 individual subjects yesterday.

The results were issued by the State Examination Commission (SEC) later than they were before the Covid-19 pandemic, but this year’s arrived a week earlier than last year. This is because there were more teachers marking exams this year and nearly all subjects were marked online, according to the SEC.

Some 94% of yesterday’s results, which is around 604,000 of them, were either full or partially marked using the SEC’s online marking system. The percentage of students who scored distinction marks slipped this year in almost all subjects.

The overall percentage of pupils to register between 90% to 100% in their exams ranged from 2.6% in English to 7.9% in Italian. The overall average was close to four per cent this year, compared to last year’s rate of between two and four per cent.

The Junior Cycle curriculum underwent massive changes due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Due to the impact of the pandemic, examinations were cancelled for most candidates in 2020 and 2021 and replaced by school-based assessments.

In the three years since, a reformed Junior Cycle curriculum meant that only Irish, English, and maths were examined at higher and ordinary level.

All other Junior Cycle subjects were examined at common level and grades were inflated to account for the disruption to students.

Calls to end grade inflation were criticised by students who fear they will be at a disadvantage when applying for college places if they are compared with the stronger – but inflated - results of applicants from recent years.

However, Education Minister Norma Foley announced her intention in April past to return to normal outcomes and yesterday vowed that grade inflation is coming to an end.

She said: “It will be done bit by bit and that will begin in 2025. There will be a very small percentage drop and that will continue over a number of years. It will be done incrementally over a number of years. I think that’s fair. If my child was taking the exams, I would want the maximum of fairness. I believe it wouldn’t be fair to go in one fell swoop back to what it was pre-Covid.”

Minister Foley added on RTE Radio 1: “We have to remember that 2019 was a case in time. After that, we had Covid. We needed to have calculated grades and accredited grades and that’s where the teachers themselves provided the grades.

“It did mean that there was grade inflation but we are now in a post-Covid environment and so we begin in 2025 step-by-step, but we will review it.”

Meanwhile, Association of Secondary Teachers in Ireland (ASTI) president Donal Cremin urged students to celebrate sensibly. He said: “I encourage all of you to celebrate in a safe manner.

“If you are celebrating with your friends, make sure your parents and guardians are involved in your plans.”

Official marks for all subjects will be published on the examinations.ie website today.

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