A total of 6,100 students will receive upgraded Leaving Cert calculated grades this evening.
A review of the process has been completed after coding errors were discovered in the process earlier this week.
A total of three errors with the code used in the system have now been identified - although a newly-confirmed third issue is not said to have had any meaningful impact on results.
Following the process, Education Minister Norma Foley has confirmed:
- 5,408 students will receive a higher grade, by one grade band, in one subject.
- 621 students will receive a higher grade, by one grade band, in two subjects.
- 71 students will receive a higher grade, by one grade band, in three or more subjects.
The highest number of upgrades any one student will receive is five.
A total of 6,870 grades were affected by the errors, and 614 of the 741 schools and other centres recognised to hold the Leaving Certificate will have one or more upgraded results.
All students will receive a text message this evening alerting them whether their grades are changing.
Students who have received corrected grades will be able to access their results via the calculated grades portal from 6pm today.
Addressing Leaving Cert students, Minister Foley said: "You have had an exceptionally difficult year - I am sorry for that. And I am sorry this last week delivered more uncertainty for you.
“I am glad that we can now provide students whose grades were lower than they should have been with their corrected results today and that this period of uncertainty is now over for all students."
She also also reiterated that officials will work to ensure any students who are eligible to receive a higher CAO will be offered that higher preference course, wherever possible.
A helpline for students will be open from 01 8892199 and will be open today until 7pm and tomorrow from 11am-4 pm.
Issues
Minister Foley also detailed the findings of an Education Testing Services (ETS) expert opinion on the coding error.
The group highlighted two issues with the process.
The Department of Education said: "The first is an error which occurred in the use of data, where a student did not sit all three core subjects at Junior Cycle.
"In those cases, the system was meant to use the average national Junior Cycle score, in the missing subject, of the group of students who took their Leaving Certificate in 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020.
"Instead, it chose that student’s next best subject for inclusion in the group computation."
While that relates to the previously confirmed errors, ETS also highlighted another issue which has not been identified before.
The Department said: "The second issue raised by ETS is how the algorithm treated students’ marks at the extreme ends of the scale. ETS noted that the treatment does not exactly match what is described in the national standardisation group’s report, and confirmed that this does not have any meaningful impact on results."
The latter issue applied to students whose marks are 99% and above, or 1% and below.
ETS says that other than those issues the results seem to be as expected.
