Over 60,000 Leaving Cert students are expected register this week at a new online portal to decide whether they wish to receive a calculated grade.
The government is offering an opt-in system this year for students to receive a calculated grade in lieu of sitting Leaving Cert exams this year due to Covid-19.
All Leaving Cert and LC Applied students are required to register on the government’s online portal before 10pm this Thursday, regardless of whether they will to receive a calculated grade or not.
When registering students must have their Exam Number, PPS, email address, and mobile number.
They mist also confirm which level they sit each subject in, with the option to stay where they are or drop to a lower level.
Once they have registered, and the government has received the necessary information from schools, students will be asked to opt-in if they wish to receive calculated grades.
“This is a brand-new system that it has been necessary to introduce because of the decisions we have had to take as we respond to Covid-19 situation,” Minister for Education Joe McHugh said.
“The important message for Leaving Certificate students is that they must now register by Thursday at 10pm to ensure that they can receive their Leaving Certificate calculated grades.”
“Please don’t leave it until the last minute. This is a tight timeframe. We need every student to register so that the new system can operate smoothly.”
Some 61,000 students are expected to register on the portal this week as the department moves ahead with its Leaving Cert plans.
There was some tension last week with the Association of Secondary Teachers of Ireland over the plans, with the union expressing concerns that the indemnity protection offered teachers over the grades was not sufficient.
But this was smoothed over after the department offered assurances that teachers would not be left with legal costs of defending themselves where it is needed.
The Department of Education has today advised teachers to destroy any supporting documents related to how they arrived at a student’s grade, such as early drafts, and preserve only the final form submitted to the department.
This is because any appeal will not include challenging a teachers judgement, but may only look for potential data entry errors.
