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Minister for Education announces commitments to:

Joint paper on improving the transition between second level and higher education published

The Minister for Education & Skills, Ruairí Quinn T.D. is today announcing the progress made on supporting the transition between second level and higher education for students. Key stakeholders have been working collaboratively to address problem areas surrounding the change for young people moving from secondary school to third level.

This follows a conference in September 2011 held by the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NCCA) and the Higher Education Authority (HEA) on the issue. The Department of Education & Skills has been working in partnership with all the relevant bodies – the NCCA, HEA, State Exams Commission (SEC), Irish Universities Association (IUA) and Institutes of Technology Ireland (IOTI).

The areas being addressed, progress made to date and future work are outlined in a paper published today (Wednesday 27^th March) Supporting a Better Transition from Second Level to Higher Education: Key Directions and next Steps.

It contains three key commitments to:

1.

Reduce the number of level 8 degree programmes in higher education and make them more broadly-based

2.

Reduce the number of grading bands (A1, A2, B1, B2 etc)

3.

Address problematic predictability in the Leaving Certificate exams

Minister Quinn said, "We know that the high stakes nature of the Leaving Certificate exam, particularly as it is used for determining entry to higher education, has had a negative effect on teaching and learning, as well as educational outcomes at second level.

"It has also led to many academics complaining that first year students are not equipped to critically think or analyse problems. The commitments for change I am announcing today will address these problem areas and help our young people in both the Leaving Certificate cycle and their entry to higher education."

"I am very conscious that many of our Leaving Certificate students will be sitting their exams shortly. The changes that we are committing to today will not affect today’s cohort or anyone going into fifth year in 2013. There is still more work to do before final conclusions are reached on the issues in this report. I expect to see a full implementation plan before the end of the year, with clear plans for phased implementation beginning for students entering the fifth year in 2014. Major changes will not occur without due notice being given to schools, parents and students."

Reducing the number of level 8 degree programmes in higher education and making them more broadly-based :

Over-specialisation early in undergraduate programmes leads to confusion for students selecting courses of study, unnecessarily high entry point requirements for some degrees and can also have adverse consequences for the first year experience.

The Minister said that "The number of CAO options has risen dramatically in recent years from 385 in 1991 to 1419 in 2013. The increase is most notable in level 8 honours degree programmes which have nearly trebled from 387 as recently as in the year 2000 to 946 this year. And it’s not that we have many more institutions in the CAO system – in the year 2000 there were 44, this year there are 45. We have to call halt to the exponential growth in course options in the interests of students."

University presidents have now committed to significantly reducing the number of Level 8 bachelor degree programmes in areas including the arts, business and the sciences. They will bring recommendations to their academic councils to instead offer broader based courses to first years with the option to specialise further into the programme. Highly contested places into the healthcare professional programmes will not be affected by this commitment. Institutes of Technology have committed to review Level 8 programmes to ensure there is a mixed portfolio of programmes with denominated and generic entry.

Reducing the number of grading bands:

A commitment has been made to reduce the number of grading bands. Until 1992, there were only seven points to the scale in Leaving Certificate results. However, at the request of the higher education institutions, this was expanded to 14 different grades (A1, A2, B1, B2, B3 etc) in order to improve the means by which the Leaving Certificate exam could be used as a mechanism to determine entry to higher education and to reduce the level of random selection.

The commitment to reduce the number of grades signals that the purpose of the Leaving Certificate as the formal end of second level examination is as important as its use as a selection tool for higher education.

Addressing Problematic Predictability in the Leaving Certificate Exam:

Problematic predictability in examinations can lead to undesirable teaching and learning behaviours such as "teaching to the test" instead of in-depth learning and critical thinking. The SEC has examined the issue and commissioned an external evaluation to determine if problematic predictability is occurring in the Leaving Certificate.

A commitment to address problematic predictability that may be uncovered in any subject has now been made. The process will be carefully managed by the SEC in order to ensure fairness to candidates.

Next Steps:

While significant progress on the transition from second level to higher education has been made, further work needs to be carried out to complete this process. This work is expected to be completed by year end and the changes agreed will be implemented on a phased basis for fifth year students who commence the Leaving Certificate cycle in 2014.

A range of areas for such further work have been identified including exploration of issues such as the number of grades in the Leaving Certificate, the level of CAO points to be awarded to each Leaving Certificate Grade and the use of additional tools in addition to Leaving Certificate points to allocate places in higher education.

Minister Quinn will host a conference in late June to discuss the issues arising with stakeholders.

He concluded, "Changes to the entry system into higher education must be managed carefully to ensure everyone, especially students and their parents have confidence in the system. I hope to be able to announce the full plans and the timing of their implementation by the end of this year. Finally, I want to pay tribute to all of the main players in the Transitions Process for their hard work and creative thinking on how we can all work together to improve the experience of Leaving Certificate and early years in college for our young people.