Sinn Féin spokesperson on Education Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire TD has called on the Department of Education to urgently provide students who have chosen to resit Leaving Certificate exams with greater clarity about how exam sessions will take place; particularly in relation to the exams timetable.

Teachta Ó Laoghaire said:

“According to the Departments of Education, Leaving Certificate resit exams are due to begin in just seven weeks time. I welcome that a start date has been announced. However, these exams will be upon students very soon and there are many questions that remain unanswered.

“The Leaving Certificate class of 2020 have been through a huge amount of stress and anxiety since they left school in March. While the Leaving Certificate is difficult in any year, no one could have predicted the Covid-19 pandemic and the cancellation of this year’s exams.

“Many students have been left extremely disappointed by the calculated grades they received and feel that an injustice has been done to them. Some students have made the difficult decision to return to the books and resit written exams in November.

“These students deserve the best possible chance to prepare and to do this the Minister for Education must urgently provide them with answers to pressing questions that remain outstanding.

“When will the timetable for the November exams be released?

“Will there be standardisation for the marking of this cohort of students?

“And if so, what will it resemble, given this will obviously be an untypical cohort that is unlikely to fit with the patterns of an ordinary summer Leaving Cert?

“The answers to these questions should be set out now to give students the best possible chance to prepare for exams in November.”