Reform of the Leaving Certificate must strike the “right balance” between assessment and final exams, the Education and Training Boards Ireland’s Director of Schools has said. 

270 principals will gather in Sligo today for a two day conference to discuss how the senior cycle can be reformed. 

During COVID, in person exams were cancelled and students were offered ‘calculated grades’ based on their teachers’ assessments; the result was significant grade inflation compared to 2019 and Paul Fields was clear, “We’re not going back to that space.” 

Regardless, he believes there should be less emphasis on the final exams than has been tradition.  

“The OECD when they conducted their research in relation to our Leaving Cert, they said the end point was too stressful and too rigid in relation to the assessment that took place along the way,” he told Newstalk Breakfast. 

“So, what we’re looking for would be a small number [of assessments]... and the right balance in relation to that terminal exam and where we capture the assessment along the way.” 

Students at Belvedere College in Dublin, sit the first day of the Leaving Cert, 03-06-2009. Image: Mark Stedman/RollingNews

There are currently 41 subjects examined in the Leaving Cert each year and in 29 of them there is a component that is not a final exam. 

“There has been quite a degree of change along the way,” he said. 

“Curricula change has been part of history.”

Main image: Pupils started their English Paper 1. Credit: AG News/Alamy Live News