Teachers demand exam reprieve for bereaved students

The tiny number of Junior and Leaving Certificate students who are affected by family bereavements or serious illness should be allowed sit an alternative exam later in the summer, a teacher conference has heard.

Around six students suffer the stress of a parent or sibling dying just before or during the State exams in June each year, James Howley told the Association of Secondary Teachers Ireland (ASTI) annual convention.

The east Mayo branch delegate said provisions state such students must sit exams at a special exam centre or a different time on the same day as other students, but they ignore the fact they might have two papers on the same day as a funeral.