A chara, – Further to the article by David McWilliams ("Where are the normal people?", September 11th).
According to the CAO Leaving Certificate points statistics, 5.6 per cent of students achieved 550 points or higher in 2019, the last year of the traditional Leaving Cert.
This year 15.1 per cent of students achieved 550 points or higher.
As McWilliams knows, if you helicopter money into an inflated economy, the effect is to add inflation and undermine the value of the currency.
In the Leaving Cert of 2021, the cause of the hyperinflation in points is nothing to do with private schools, where you live or social class. It has more to do with the aberrance of a second year of calculated grades.
This is what primed an already over-heated points system. If there is ever an argument for fair exams and a move away from calculated grades, we have seen it in this year’s results. Maybe normal is good.
– Yours, etc,
MICHEÁL LANDERS,
Belgooly,
Co Cork.