Students were due to access the rankings on September 14th a week after receiving their calculated grades, however, teachers’ unions objected on the basis that the data was “highly sensitive” according to the Irish Times.
A spokesman for the Department of Education told the paper it had sought legal advice with regards to making class rank orders available to students, and following this the department was putting a system in place to allow students to view their rank.
The information will allow students to see if they had been ranked last in a subject an individual class and is set to be available online through the calculated grades student portal from Monday, September 28th.
'Shocked'
It comes as at the beginning of September, teaching unions said they were shocked to learn that students would have access to the order in which their teachers had ranked them.
Teachers were required to submit a class rank list as part of the calculated grades process which played a crucial role in determining a student’s final grade and the likelihood of it being downgraded.
Both the Teachers’ Union of Ireland (TUI) and the Association of Secondary Teachers, Ireland (ASTI) said they understood that this information would only be available to students who issued a formal appeal.
Earlier in September, TUI President Michael Marjoram said the union had been discussing the issue with the Department of Education: “Our members cooperated with something that was almost anathema to them, to put such rankings down on paper.
“And to put down on paper the position of children that they had supported and kept in school and boosted the morale of and the confidence of, so we are really concerned about the correct treatment of that data.”
Class ranking information is likely to be important evidence in any future legal actions relating to the calculated grades process.
Under data protection legislation, students are entitled to access any data compiled about them in relation to the calculated grades process.
