For 27,000 Leaving Certificate students, French papers were the morning fare and there were no nasty surprises.

For higher-level Leaving Certificate English students, Seamus Heaney appeared for a second day running — but it was an unseen poem of his that made yesterday’s long Paper 2.

The 2014 Junior Certificate began with English papers at over 700 schools around the country yesterday morning.

Leaving Certificate students at St Angela’s College in Cork City were fairly pleased with how they fared in the first papers.

The possible withdrawal from teaching of English in their row with Education Minister Ruairi Quinn over the replacement of the Junior Certificate may be put to ASTI members in the autumn.

English teachers at nearly 400 secondary schools could be told not to teach the new junior cycle curriculum under an emergency proposal that might reach their union conference floor today.

French and history filled the timetable for Junior and Leaving Certificate students yesterday.

Delegates at the Association of Secondary Teachers conference voted for an “immediate restoration” of guidance teachers’ numbers which were badly hit in last December’s budget.