Number of Leaving candidates rises by 1,600

MORE than 55,000 students sat the Leaving Certificate examination this year, an increase of 1,663 on last year.

Numbers repeating the Leaving Cert were down from 1,878 last year to 1,778 this year, but the number of students taking the exams from home increased to 4,101, up 450 from last year.

This year 3,445 students took their final stage exams in the two-year Leaving Cert Applied (LCA) programme, while 14,505 took part in the Leaving Cert Vocational programme.