The students of Leaving Cert 2020 have watched in horror as fellow students in the United Kingdom have opened their A-Level results to see their teacher assessed predicted grades significantly downgraded by the flawed and imprecise OfQual algorithm. It was clear from the very first instance of UK results being distributed in Scotland on the 4th of August that this process was not going to end well, but nobody knew quite how disastrous it would be.

40% of A-Level results were downgraded. Students from disadvantaged areas performed poorly as a result of the algorithm due to "historic evidence" from public schools who may have performed poorly in the past 6 years. Private school results were inflated. Students who were predicted the highest possible grades have been downgraded to results that rescind their offers from competitive universities. 

On the 17th of August, 2020, the UK government did a complete U-Turn on their initial decision and confirmed that the results would be changed to those initially predicted by their teachers, who know the students better than any algorithm could predict. 

We must take a similar course of action in Ireland.

This petition calls on the Department of Education to completely scrap the algorithm used in generating results for the Class of 2020. It is completely unfair and, as we've seen across the pond, does not work. We have the opportunity to learn from the mistakes of the UK's process, so scrap the algorithm and trust our teachers!!