I was planning to take my daughter to a family wedding in Italy in the second half of August, but have been advised by her school principal that Leaving Cert students may need to be around in case of appealing exam results. Is this true?
Your daughter's principal is correct in flagging substantial changes which flow from the judgment in the Rebecca Carter case last year.
The timing of the Leaving Cert and CAO offers have been adjusted to enable successful college applicants to secure their final CAO offer by mid-September next.
This will avoid the scenario which arose in previous years where students who secured upgrades in mid-October had to defer taking up their course offer for a full academic year.
This year, the Leaving Cert results will be released to students earlier than normal: shortly after 9pm on Tuesday, August 13th.
If your daughter is out of the country she can get access to her results online via the State Examinations Commission (SEC). On the same day, large boxes will be delivered to every second-level school containing corrected exam scripts from this year's Leaving Cert classes.
On Thursday, August 15th, at 2pm, the CAO will release the first round of offers online relating to this year’s Leaving Cert cohort (offers to previous years Leaving Cert applicants will have already been made in early July and August).
If she is happy with her offer, she can electronically accept it on the spot and the process is over.
If your daughter does not secure a satisfactory offer on that date, she will have until close of business the following day – Friday, August 16th – to return to her school the form enclosed in the results envelope she received on the previous Tuesday.
Retrieve scripts
On receipt of these forms the assigned teacher will have the weekend and the following Monday to retrieve the scripts requested for viewing from the boxes and notify each student of the times they should attend their school with one other nominated person of their choice for each script viewed.
If your daughter wishes to view her scripts, she cannot nominate someone else to do so on her behalf, so she will have to be in Ireland on Tuesday 20th or Wednesday 21st of August.
Students have one day to decide whether they wish to appeal a grade: the deadline will be 5pm on Thursday, August 22nd.
Round one CAO offers close the following day. The assigned teacher will then pack the appropriate scripts and deliver them to the SEC in Athlone or to a regional collection point.
By Monday, August 26th when all second-level schools will have reopened, a cohort of teachers will be busy at work at home remarking the appealed scripts. Revised results will be released to students no later than the week beginning September 15th, one week after the beginning of lectures in third-level colleges.
Email queries to askbrian@irishtimes.com
