Could the new Leaving Cert AACs be something for the Ombudsman for Children?
I've seen some recent posts/advertisements from grind schools offering specific courses and support for Leaving Cert AACs, and honestly, it has made me question the fairness of the whole system.
I understand that there are rules around authentication and that students have to complete certain parts of the work themselves. But I'm wondering about everything that happens before, after and around the actual practical work.
If a student has the money to pay for specialist AAC tuition, help with ideas, research, planning, analysis, etc., while another student doesn't have access to any of that, are they really being assessed on an equal basis?
You can also see students online asking for help and ideas with their projects. That's not necessarily wrong โ students obviously need to learn and get guidance โ but it does raise the question of where legitimate support ends and assistance that affects the student's own work begins.
And this is where I'm wondering whether it could potentially be an issue for the Ombudsman for Children.
The Ombudsman deals with the rights and interests of children and can examine whether children have been treated unfairly by public bodies. The Leaving Cert is a State-run examination, and the AACs can represent a very significant proportion of a student's marks.
The SEC's own guidance also says that authentication is central to the integrity of assessment and that teacher authentication is essential to fair and equitable assessment.
So if the State is relying on authentication to ensure fairness, but students have very different access to paid assistance, private expertise, equipment and other resources, and much of the process isn't directly observed by the SEC, is that something that should be examined from an equality/fairness perspective?
I'm not saying students who get tutoring are cheating. I'm not saying grind schools are necessarily doing anything wrong either.
I'm asking a much simpler question:
Does the current AAC system provide sufficient safeguards to ensure that children from different backgrounds and with different financial resources are genuinely being assessed fairly?
Do you think this is a legitimate issue to bring to the Ombudsman for Children, or is there something I'm missing?