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The online portal where students can access their results was temporarily taken offline yesterday. Rolling News
results may vary
Schools told to reprint Junior Cert results after erroneous grading legend discovered
Outdated grading information appeared on students’ results statements, although their actual grades were unaffected.
THE BODY RESPONSIBLE for overseeing the Junior Cert exams was left correcting a mistake of its own on Wednesday after issuing results statements containing incorrect grading information.
The State Examinations Commission (SEC) stressed that students’ actual grades were correct, with the mistake only affecting the information explaining the grades at the bottom of their results statements.
Junior Cycle results were made available to schools through the SEC’s online portal at 10am on Wednesday.
However, shortly afterwards, the commission discovered that the statements displayed grade boundaries used between 2017 and 2024, rather than the updated boundaries introduced last year.
Under the new system, students need a mark of 85% or above to receive a Distinction, compared with 90% previously.
A Higher Merit now covers marks from 70% to just under 85%, rather than 75% to just under 90%, while the Merit range has narrowed from 55–74% to 55–69%.
The boundaries for the remaining grades, Achieved, Partially Achieved and Not Graded, remain unchanged.
However, the results statements issued on Wednesday displayed the old grade boundaries, despite students’ actual grades being correct.
A spokesperson for the SEC said the commission “immediately disabled” the facility allowing schools to print results statements and notified schools that corrected versions would be available from 1pm.
“We advised schools which had already printed their Statements to arrange to wait for the update and then print them again,” the spokesperson said.
“Importantly, we reassured schools that the individual candidate results were correct,” they added, stressing that “there was no issue with the grades themselves”.
The spokesperson said some schools had already distributed the original statements to students, alongside a separate sheet explaining the correct grade boundaries, with plans to replace them.
All schools have since received corrected statements, with no changes to students’ individual results.
The SEC has apologised to schools for the error and said it will review what happened “to prevent any possibility for it to recur in future”.
Students can also access their results through the Candidate Self Service Portal.
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