Ulick Burke (Galway East, Fine Gael)
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Question 572: To ask the Minister for Education and Science if he is satisfied with the situation in relation to the upgrading of final grades in leaving certificate 2009 results whereby if a student was three or four marks short of a grade an increase to all students occurred without further reassessment of the scripts involved in a certain subject area; the number of changes in courses resulting from this upgrade; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [43108/09]

Batt O'Keeffe (Cork North West, Fianna Fail)
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The upgrades were the result of a broadening of the marking scheme for LC Higher Level Biology during the appeals stage of the marking, and related to one part of a question which was valued at a maximum of 3 marks out of a total of 400 marks for the subject. The scripts of all candidates who appealed their Biology results were already reviewed during the appeal stage to allow for the application of the revised marking scheme, and 56 students received an upgrade as a result at that stage. Once the appeals were finalised, the scripts were reviewed in the case of a further 1,887 students of the total of 20,101 Higher Level Biology candidates whose score was within 3 marks of the next sub-grade, and a further 621 candidates received an upgrade. The scripts were therefore reviewed in the case of all candidates who had the potential to benefit from the revised marking scheme. All the students involved were contacted by the State Examinations Commission and the CAO was informed of the revised results. This resulted in a change in the offer of a college place for 44 students.

No area of human activity can be guaranteed to be error free. What is important is to have systems in place to identify errors when they arise and to rectify them as soon as possible. While it is regrettable that the problem arose in this case it is important to acknowledge that the steps taken demonstrate that the State Examinations Commission has a transparent, fair and robust system of checks and balances in place.

Within Higher Level Biology in the Leaving Certificate 2009, 4.5% of the candidate results were upgraded. Overall out of nearly 380,000 Leaving Certificate grades awarded 2,697 have been upgraded. This represents 0.7% of the grades awarded.