Lower Leaving Cert grades this year?

Leaving Cert results could be slightly lower this year as grading begins to return to normal following grade inflation during the pandemic.

That’s according to Breakthrough Maths CEO TJ Hegarty who believes this Friday’s results will see a slight decrease despite the Government initially outlining 2025 as the beginning of a return to pre-Covid grading.

“They're steadily going to bring down the grades, you can expect results to go down marginally on Friday,” Mr Hegarty told the Cork Independent.

“The grades will technically be brought down from next year, so this year's scores should be okay, but I personally think there will be a slight percentage decrease. The grades are still very high,” he added.

Earlier this year, Minister for Education, Norma Foley, said the gradual return to normal Leaving Cert grading would begin in 2025 following the implementation of grading adjustments to counteract disruptions to education during the pandemic. This inflation caused grades to rise by 7% compared to 2019.

Maths anxiety

Mr Hegarty, who founded Breakthrough Maths in Cork in 2020 to help students who struggle specifically with the subject, said maths is still a huge source of anxiety for students facing the Leaving Cert.

Today, about one in five people suffer with maths anxiety, with much of it stemming from the attitude shown towards maths in society, said Mr Hegarty.

“There's absolutely no statistics or research behind the idea that someone is naturally better at maths. I find now that that's a concrete fact,” he said.

“The reason people get maths anxiety is that people don't deal with numbers and logical reasoning on a daily, regular basis.

“The challenge with maths is it's a way of thinking and we don't normally apply that way of thinking every single day, working with abstract and unknown numbers like X and Y and algebra, that jars people.

“In a maths class you could have ten questions. That's ten points of anxiety. Then what about a two-and-a-half-hour exam? That’s a lot of anxiety,” added Mr Hegarty.

One solution to maths anxiety proposed by Mr Hegarty is to use play and problem-solving to teach younger children, something that is now being put in place in Irish primary schools after 25 years of unchanged curriculum.

Another solution is societal encouragement, which can start in the home.

“How can I help? That's the only question you have to ask,” continued Mr Hegarty.

“There's a perception to not put pressure on kids by not talking about the exams. The best parenting example I've seen – they put the exam dates up on the fridge, they talk about the exams, and they talk about how they can help.

“Make it that the whole house is doing exams and not just the child on their own,” he said.