Q&A: What is going on with this year's State exams?
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A: Written, coursework, oral, and practical performance exams will all go ahead this year, but students will be offered the choice between written exams, and a modified version of calculated grades which will be accredited by the State Examinations Commission (SEC). The Department of Education is calling these 'SEC-Accredited Grades'.
Under the process, students can opt-in to receive an SEC-Accredited Grade, or to sit the Leaving Certificate examination. Students will be able to opt into these processes on a subject-by-subject basis. In the coming months, students will be able to register via a portal for their choices.
Written exams are set to take place in June, and the timetable will be published today by the SEC. For students opting to take the Leaving Certificate exams, oral examinations will be held during Easter holidays or shortly after.
Additional time will be provided for students submitting coursework, but it will not be possible to hold practical exams in some subjects. Details of revised schedules will be issued to schools in the coming weeks.
Students who opt in to receive calculated grades will not receive them before the written examination.
A: The Department of Education said that results will issue to students within the required timeframe for CAO admission.
The results will also issue within the timeframe currently required by UCAS, the UK's college entry system.
A: The Junior Cert has been cancelled for the second year in a row, to be replaced with school assessments.
Logistically from a public health point of view, the numbers of students sitting exams at the same time have to be limited as much as possible, making it always unlikely the Junior Cert could be held at the same time as the Leaving Cert in June.
Schools will be provided with guidance from the Department of Education on online learning and assessment with this year group during the period of school closure and through in-person learning when schools re-open.
A: It's fair to say that what's announced this week won't be the final announcement we hear about Leaving Cert 2021.
Teachers and students are likely to have their own concerns and questions when they see the final details of the arrangements.
The support of teachers in the plans will be crucial. There's quite a lot of finer details that still have to be worked out.
Further details and guidance on both the assessed grades and written exams processes will be provided to schools and students over the coming weeks, as these become available.
A: Discussions around the return to school are ongoing. While a date of March 1 has been reported, it now appears that a definitive date has yet to be set but March is still the aim.
It’ll be a ‘phased’ return, meaning it won’t be all students returning to in-person learning all at once.
It is also likely now that a 'phased' return to school will take a slower pace than initially planned.
Particular care will also have to be given to the order in which students return to classrooms.
While Leaving Cert students look set to be prioritised, there are still children with special educational needs who are attending schools on alternate days and students with additional educational needs in mainstream schools who have yet to return to any in-person learning.
Younger students in primary school are likely to prioritise for a return first at primary level.
The thinking here is that younger children are more likely to struggle with remote learning.
A: Easter holidays begin on Friday, March 26. At a briefing this week, Dr Ronan Glynn said some time will be needed to study the impact of each phase of the return, given the presence of new more transmissible variants.
It is hard to predict what will happen given the lack of concrete details just yet but taking this into account, it seems unlikely all groups will be back ahead of those holidays.