The Social Democrats have called on the Minister for Education to provide clarity and certainty to the thousands of affected students who had their Leaving Certificate results downgraded due to errors identified in the predicted grades marking system.<\/p>\n
Gary Gannon TD, the party\u2019s spokesperson on Education, said:<\/p>\n
\u201cFollowing yesterday\u2019s revelations that around 6,500 students received downgraded results in error, it is only right that the Minister should come into the D\u00e1il this evening and account for her Department\u2019s handling of this very serious development.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe still need further clarity on why it took a full week for these errors to be brought into the public domain. We also need to know if the students who were upgraded in error will also be notified.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn addition, does the Minster believe that these errors are in part the cause of many students being dissatisfied\u00a0with their results from the predictive grade model, with 12,292 students seeking appeals?<\/p>\n
\u201cMoreover, will these errors\u00a0cause a delay in the appeal\u00a0process and is there a date when the appeals will be released?\u201d<\/p>\n
Holly Cairns TD, the Social Democrats spokesperson for Further and Higher Education, added:<\/p>\n
\u201cOver the past 24 hours, the main focus has been on the Department of Education. However, we also need the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Simon Harris TD, to outline how the affected students will be accommodated in the course they are entitled to.<\/p>\n
\u201cColleges and universities will need to be given extra funding and resources to safely admit these additional students. Extra teaching staff, learning facilities and lab spaces may also be required.<\/p>\n
\u201cStudents should be compensated for any additional costs associated with this disruption as it is a problem of the Department of Education\u2019s making. Specific funding also needs to be put place to allow them take up their preferred course or help them move and possibly get deposits back on accommodation if they have already relocated.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery student who wants to participate in their course this year needs to be given the opportunity to do so.\u201d<\/p>\n
October 1, 2020<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Social Democrats have called on the Minister for Education to provide clarity and certainty to the thousands of affected students who had their Leaving Certificate results downgraded due to errors identified in the predicted grades marking system. Gary Gannon TD, the party\u2019s spokesperson on Education, said: \u201cFollowing yesterday\u2019s revelations that around 6,500 students received […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1187,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[316,400,7,399],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1231","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gary-gannon","category-holly-cairns","category-press-release","category-tds"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n