4,300 pupils took oral Irish despite ban

ALMOST 4,300 students at one in eight second-level schools did a Junior Certificate Irish oral exam this year despite union bans on teachers conducting the tests.

The State Examinations Commission (SEC) does not pay for teachers to visit other schools to conduct oral tests for the Junior Certificate, unlike at Leaving Certificate level where the spoken exam is compulsory for Irish and a number of languages.

However, although the oral exam is optional at Junior Certificate, the number of schools where students are being examined has soared since the marks for the oral test doubled from 20% of the overall grade to 40% last year.