Norma Foley, the Minister for Education stated that the department in not in a position to offer leaving cert students the same options as last year. There would be no choice between exams and accredited grades.
The Minister confirmed today that only exams would go ahead for leaving cert students this year but that would be “less content required” and students would get “considerable choice” in the exams.
Minister Foley said that the grading profile will be the same as last year with with similar H1s, H2s etc being awarded to students.
She also stated that as far as she was aware no EU country would be offering accredited grades in 2022.
There is to be adjustments made to the exams this year will be the same as the ones made last year for students sitting exams which aims at lessen the load for students.
The minister also confirmed that there will be a second round of leaving cert exams that will be held following the main set of exams, for students who may contract Covid-19 during the examination period, those who have a close family bereavement or certain other categories of serious illness during this time.
The layout of examination papers will also be changed so that student will have less areas to cover. Taoiseach Micheál Martin said that students should be looking at last years exam papers as a guide.
In Maths, in each paper, candidates will have to answer six, instead of having to answer all ten questions, he said.
In Biology, candidates will have to answer only eight, instead of 11 questions, and “can further focus on a reduced range of mandatory activities”.
In English paper one, candidates will only have to answer half of the amount of “comprehending questions” as usual, while in English paper two they only have to answer two sections instead of three sections in the paper.
In Art, the coursework has been almost halved, life-sketching has been removed entirely, and there will only be 2 questions to be answered instead of 3.
While on RTÉ’s Six One News, Ms Foley explained the decision not to offer a hybrid system to students that those who did not do transition year have not sat state exams and therefore they could not provide comparability for accredited grades.
The Junior Certificate will also take place for 3rd year students for the first time since 2019.