The adjustment of Leaving Certificate results, which began after Covid, will continue next year, with students set to receive results that are in aggregate lower than those of this year, Minister for Education Helen McEntee has confirmed.
A gradual return to pre-pandemic results levels began this year, with aggregate results reduced to a point just above midway between 2020 and 2021 levels.
It is intended that this year aggregate results will fall to just below 2020 levels. This places them still more than four percentage points above normal unadjusted 2019 levels.
The following year, 2027, is likely to see results reduced by a similar amount as between 2025 and 2026.
In a statement, the Department of Education and Youth said it was hoped it may not be necessary to apply a post marking adjustment in 2027, "if the outcomes from the marking process remain similar to those of 2025 which were themselves slightly above 2019".
After the pandemic students were promised that there would be no 'cliff-edge' or sudden reduction in the level of results awarded. This was to facilitate students who may find themselves competing for college places against those from previous years with inflated results.
The decision to avoid a sudden reduction means that the effects of grade inflation are still playing out in annual Leaving Certificate results.
The department has also said that some adjustments currently in place for Leaving Certificate students, which include a reduction of tasks to be completed by Leaving Certificate Applied students in Year 2, will continue to apply until revised curriculums under Senior Cycle Redevelopment are in place.
Those new curriculums are currently being phased in.
Describing this approach as "a gradual washing out of assessment adjustments", the department said that by 2029, 26 out of 41 Leaving Certificate Established subjects would have no adjustments, "many of these being among the highest in volume terms".
The Department has also said the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment will carry out a review of Junior Cycle Classroom Based Assessments.
Until that review is completed students will continue to be required to complete just one CBA, instead of two, and the assessment task will not be examined.
"The review will take account of the core and essential nature of CBAs to learning outcomes, and ensure that the 'new normal' in terms of number and content for the future takes account of experience to date and alignment with Senior Cycle", it said.
