Minister McEntee announces changes to Junior Cycle grade bands
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From: Department of Education
- Published on: 22 April 2025
- Last updated on: 22 April 2025
Minister for Education Helen McEntee has today announced changes to the Junior Cycle grade bands.
There will be the same number of grade bands as before with the top four grade descriptors (Distinction, Higher Merit, Merit, and Achieved) being evenly distributed in bands of fifteen percentage points.
Minister McEntee said:
“I am delighted to confirm that the grade bands at Junior Cycle will be amended, and that these changes will apply to the more than 73,000 students due to sit their examinations in the coming weeks.
“With the top four grade bands now becoming evenly distributed, this will have a positive impact on students, ensuring their grades are more reflective of their work and effort, as well as of the work of our teachers.
“It can be expected that higher numbers of students will achieve Distinction and Higher Merit grades with this change.
“While today I am announcing changes to the grade bands for students in 2025 and future years, they remain sufficiently broad to ensure that students can focus on learning and engaging in school, and on becoming independent, resourceful and confident learners, rather than focusing solely on examinations. It is vital that students, their learning and engagement remains at the heart of Junior Cycle.”
Minister McEntee also noted that the final report of a Longitudinal Study on the enactment of the Junior Cycle Framework, commissioned by the NCCA from the University of Limerick, is currently under consideration by the NCCA Council.
Noting the positive themes emerging from the interim reports published to date, as well as the challenges, Minister McEntee said:
“I look forward to receiving the final report of the Longitudinal Study on Junior Cycle in the near future. I have written to the NCCA emphasising that where action is needed, I intend to move quickly, both in the interests of students as well as teachers, to ensure there is continuous improvement in the Junior Cycle experience.”
Additional Information
Current and New Grade Bands
The state-certified examination is but one element of a more balanced, broader approach to assessment at Junior Cycle. All aspects of assessment contribute to providing a comprehensive picture of student achievement which is captured in the Junior Cycle Profile of Achievement (JCPA). The revised bands remain sufficiently broad to avoid pressure on students to achieve marginal examination gains.
The result of these changes should be that more students are likely to achieve Distinctions, and the narrower Merit band will see more students enter Higher Merit and also provide students, parents and teachers with some increased clarity about their level of attainment.
The State Examinations Commission (SEC) has confirmed these changes can be made for the 2025 exams, through a technical adjustment rather than through the SEC’s normal standard setting process. This technical adjustment will be done through applying the new grade boundaries to the examination marks after all other examining, marking and resulting processes have been completed.
In future years, the SEC has advised that they intend that this change will be achieved through their normal standard setting process. This process involves detailed data analysis by subject and component; changes to the marking schemes to reflect the revised grade boundaries; and implemented by the examining teams by applying the revised marking schemes to the work presented in the examinations. Because the 2025 methodology will be different to future years, it should be noted that the results for 2025 will be considered a stand-alone set of results.