James McDermott: For the class of 2020, the big lesson is life isn’t always fair

By delaying the release of results here, we were able to learn from Britain’s A-Level algorithms fiasco. But we’re not out of the woods yet

The Leaving Certificate developed structures for grading students in a transparent and fair manner slowly, over 95 years. Now, an entirely new system of assessing students would have to be developed in just over 95 days

During lockdown, the entire country appeared consumed by watching Normal People. The TV series was so phenomenally successful that I have been inspired to write a sequel called The New Normal People, based on the Leaving Certificate class of 2020.

It would be fair to say that mine is a less exciting tome than Sally Rooney’s original, as online classes, social distancing and travel bans cruelly combine to prevent Marianne and Connell from ever meeting ...