53,000 students to sit redesigned Leaving Cert

MORE than 53,000 Leaving Certificate candidates will be the first to sit the exams in a timetable designed to be more student-friendly when papers are handed out tomorrow morning.

The change in order of subjects taken over the first week of exams was introduced by former Education Minister Mary Hanafin to ease the pressure during the early days of the Leaving Cert.

The State Examinations Commission has received entries from 53,345 students, up from just more than 52,000 this time last year.

Almost 4,500 are taking exams in a non-school setting, while 1,890 are repeating one or more subjects — the first time since the early 1990s there have been fewer than 2,000 repeat students.

The numbers choosing the Leaving Certificate Applied programme this year is 3,475, up almost 10% on last year.

For 57,006 younger students, tomorrow is the first day of the Junior Certificate, almost 900 fewer than a year ago.

The Leaving Cert begins as always with the first of two English papers, but the afternoon session sees home economics replace the second written English exam on the timetable.

It has been moved instead to Thursday morning, giving all but 12,781 students an afternoon off between the two writing-focused English papers. Both Irish papers are moved to the second week of exams, on Monday and Tuesday, with chemistry, the first maths paper and geography completing this week’s timetable.

More than double the number of students will take some of the 15 non-curricular language subjects on offer for this year’s Leaving Cert compared with last year, reflecting the increasingly diverse school population.

Of 571 entries for these languages, 179 students will sit Polish and 135 will take Lithuanian, while other popular subjects in this category include Romanian, Latvian, Portuguese and Dutch.

Association of Secondary Teachers Ireland president Patricia Wroe said students preparing for the start of the state exams should try to keep things in perspective over the next couple of weeks.

“Exams are important but they’re not everything, your aim should be to look after yourself over the coming weeks and do the best you can,” she said.

Ms Wroe reminded students they should move on after each exam is over rather than analysing it in detail.

“Each exam gives you an opportunity to demonstrate what you know and is not designed to catch you out. Think positively, there is still some time each day to focus before a paper on key points so use your time wisely,” she said.

The last Leaving Cert papers will be taken on Friday, June 20, the day after the final Junior Cert exams.

The State Examinations Commission will issue Leaving Certificate results on August 13, with the first round of college place offers likely to be made by the Central Applications Office on August 18.