What was announced by Minister Helen McEntee?
Minister for Education Helen McEntee has confirmed that the gradual removal of the post-marking adjustment at Leaving Certificate, which began in 2025, will continue in 2026. The results will be the lowest in six years, on aggregate.
The Minister also confirmed assessment adjustments will be phased out only gradually remaining in place until revised curricula and new format examinations are introduced under Senior Cycle Redevelopment.
What does this mean for those students sitting the Leaving Cert in June 2026?
The return to pre-Covid assessment will continue to be done on a very gradual basis. Results in the aggregate in 2026 will be just under those in 2020 – which were more than four percentage points above 2019 levels.
Why are we still dealing with pandemic fallout in our Leaving Cert assessment system?
In 2020, given that there was no Leaving Cert, teachers calculated grades for their own students. These grades turned out to be on average of 4.6 per cent above 2019 levels. In 2021, through an Accredited Grades process, a further 2.4 per cent was added. In 2022, 2023 and 2024 students’ grades were enhanced by an average of 7 per cent to bring them in line with the results of 2020 and 2021.
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Students who achieved higher grades in the pandemic years would otherwise have been at an advantage in courses that were competitive in the CAO if they had deferred applying.
In 2025, a process of reducing the enhancement was undertaken. but a downward adjustment of only 1.1 per cent was made, leaving results 5.9 per cent above 2019 levels.
[ Leaving Cert 2026 results will be lowest in six years as grade inflation tackledOpens in new window ]
What about Leaving Certificate Established and Leaving Certificate Applied?
Examinations in recent years have been subject to assessment adjustments, which gave students greater choice on Leaving Certificate examination papers and a reduction in the requirements for some coursework.
These adjustments will stay in place until they are washed out by the revised specifications and examination formats on the way under Senior Cycle Redevelopment.
A similar gradual approach will be taken to the phasing out of the assessment adjustments applied in recent years for Leaving Certificate Applied.
What does this announcement mean for students hoping to secure their preferred course through the CAO next September?
As in 2025 there are likely to be approximately 20,000 applicants to the CAO who sat their Leaving Cert from 2020. All of them have enhanced grades which they retain. Along with the highest numbers progressing through the Leaving Cert in living memory, the presence of so many applicants with enhanced grades will probably result in CAO points remaining at or very close to the levels required in 2025.
How should the Leaving Cert class of 2026 respond to this announcement?
The only thing that students sitting the Leaving Cert in 2026 can control is their own level of preparation for the assessments which they will undertake over the coming eight months. They may or may not secure the CAO points requirements for their number one course choice next September, but there are numerous routes to achieving this objective. Up to twenty per cent of places on most courses are now awarded to further education graduates of one-year PLC level 5 programmes.
[ CAO applications: How can I help my son complete the process properly?Opens in new window ]
