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of the recently documented calamitous effects of the standardising algorithm employed in the U.K. – arbitrarily downgrading results and depriving thousands of students of university places. Education Minister Norma Foley assured students that the Irish system was different in that teacher estimations are most heavily weighted in the generating of any grade. Still, the “standardisation” process is a yet-unproven practice. A detail that has not been widely publicised is that there is no means of appealing a grade this year, merely the paper trail underpinning it. Billy Ryle, a guidance counsellor, has commented that this represents a fundamental denial of a candidate’s right to due process. So how are we to ensure that Irish students do not fall victim to a grade-calculating algorithm and suffer the same distress as U.K. students? There is still time to act. In view of the empirical evidence from the U.K., it seems the Department would be wise to abandon the process of statistical standardisation and instead base grades entirely on teacher assessments. It has been suggested that it would be easier to cope with the resultant inflated grades than the public consternation of denying Irish students a place at third level. With the improvised system not set to debut until 7 September, the significance of Covid-19 and calculated grades on the 2020 Leaving Certificate candidates remains to be seen.
Covid-19: Inequality and Disproportionality Demilade Adeniran SF Law Editor’s Note: This article contains references to racism and domestic abuse, which some readers may find distressing Death. Hand sanitiser. Face masks. Lockdown. Online lectures. Space on the bus. This line summarizes what many would associate with the Covid-19 pandemic. Although people may differ on what keywords they would choose, most agree that the pandemic has had a decidedly negative effect on all. However, it must be noted that COVID-19 has disproportionately affected specific groups of people whom this piece seeks to highlight. One group disproportionately affected by Covid-19 are those living in Direct Provision centres. People living in these centres face infringement to their human right to health as a result of Covid-19 and consequential massive overcrowding issues. The very nature of these facilities makes it difficult for different families to social distance and therefore puts these already-vulnerable residents at an even higher risk. The Ombudsman has made strong comments relating to crowd control in these centres in its annual report, noting that “... the highly contagious nature of the virus, brings into sharp relief just how unsuitable and unsustainable it is to have three or more people in the same room as is the case in many Direct Provision centres, particularly those being used on an emergency basis...” Currently, up to ten residents may share one room and one kitchen. Most reading this article struggle to relate to such a reality. The morality of these centers is questionable, yet seemingly hidden from front page news. If people are denied their human rights, they are being treated as less than human; human rights are just that, rights, not privileges. If the legislature is treating the right to human health as a privilege, by affording varying levels of this right to those in Direct Provision, we call into question whether we respect rights as a country. And if we do not respect rights as a country, what precedent do we set for seemingly smaller rights violations locally? Another disproportionality focuses on race. Black people and people of colour face prejudice at the hands of the legislature, which was of course relied heavily upon during the Covid-19 pandemic. Notably, people of colour
