Q&A: What do latest Leaving Cert reform plans mean for students, teachers and parents?

So, is this the end of the Leaving Cert as we know it?

Not quite. Minister for Education Norma Foley has today announced updated plans to reform the Leaving Cert with an emphasis on externally assessed project work and practicals across a range of subjects to be graded by the State Examinations Commission rather than teachers.

The broad aim is that although about 60 per cent of marks for all Leaving Cert subjects will be based on written exams, 40 per cent will go on additional “assessment components” such as project work, orals or practicals.

This is already the case with some subjects (Irish orals, for example), but the changes would see this breakdown applied to all subjects. The aim is to spread the assessment load and reduce some of the stress associated with high-stakes end-of-school exams.

What role will teachers have in marking their students for the Leaving Cert?

As things stand, none. Last year’s plans envisaged teacher-based assessment for “additional components” such as project work, orals or practicals worth up to 40 per cent of overall marks. These teachers’ marks were to be “externally moderated” by the State Examinations Commission.

This attracted significant criticism from teachers’ unions at their annual conferences.

They argued that their involvement in teacher-based assessment during Covid was a once-off measure and they remain opposed to members’ grading their students for State exams.

In a change from last year, Foley’s announcement today states that these additional components will be “externally assessed” by the State Examinations Commission (SEC).

Does this mean teacher-based assessment has been jettisoned?

Time will tell if Foley – or her successor – will have the stomach for that battle.

Foley insists teacher assessment remains on the table while the SEC researches the “potential role and impact of generative artificial intelligence in teacher-based assessment in particular”.

“While this work is ongoing I have decided to progress additional and practical components which that will be externally assessed by the SEC,” she said.

When can students expect to see these reforms – and in what subjects?

Foley has today pledged that reforms will apply to a first tranche of subjects – biology, chemistry, physics, Arabic, Latin, and Ancient Greek – nationally from September 2025.

In theory, then, students in fifth year in 2025 – or today’s third year students (or second years, if they skip transition year) – should be begin to see these changes.

She has pledged that a national roll-out of these revised subjects will begin then, rather than in 2027.

Two new subjects – drama, film and theatre studies; and climate action and sustainable development – will also be introduced from 2025 on a “phased” basis in some schools.

[ Leaving Cert: Norma Foley to ‘accelerate’ reforms, without teacher-based assessment ]

[ Leaving Cert reforms may be impacted by ‘game-changing’ artificial intelligence ]

What happened to plans to move some exams in sixth year to fifth year?

One of the most eye-catching aspects of the Leaving Cert reform plans, announced last year, was that students entering senior cycle in September 2023 would sit paper one in English and Irish at the end of fifth year.

The aim was to spread the assessment load.

However, the idea – described as an “easy win” by one senior official – became bogged down in opposition from teachers’ unions and students.

Even the SEC expressed concerns over it – privately – on the basis that it might “significantly disadvantage” male students if implemented as proposed, given their level of maturity relative to girls.

Officially, the plans have been “deferred”, although they appear to be dropped altogether.

What is the reaction of principals, teachers and students to these latest reform plans?

Teachers’ unions will likely see this as a victory. They are vehemently opposed to assessing their students, though some may baulk at the speed of the reform plans.

It seems likely that many principals will welcome the move. Their representative body, the National Association of Principals and Deputy Principals, has criticised the pace of reform plans and called for it to be accelerated.

Student representatives, who want to ease the pressure facing Leaving Cert candidates during the pressure-cooker exams, are likely to be pleased that reforms are picking up pace.

Norma Foley is requesting a study into the use of AI and its implications for assessment. Why?

While artificial intelligence (AI) poses little threat to traditional written exams, there are deeper concerns that plans to introduce more school-based assessments, marked by teachers, could be undermined by the new technology.

Continual assessment forms a central part of new Leaving Cert reform plans, under which 40 per cent of students’ marks would be awarded by their teacher for project, oral or practical work completed at home or in school.

AI tools such as ChatGPT can write nuanced essays, poetry, generate code and translate languages within seconds in response to prompts from human users.

The new tool has sparked alarm on college campuses and prompted a shift towards fewer generic essays, more detailed research and more oral presentations in higher education assessment. We may well see something happen with Leaving Cert assessment.