Junior Cert: Record high for students taking spoken Irish tests

The number of students tested in spoken Irish for Junior Certificate has hit another record high, but thousands of teachers face a union ban on conducting the optional exams.

Some 52,500 of this year’s students took Irish exams, with 20,220 receiving marks for the optional oral test. This 38.5% uptake of the oral exam is an increase from 32% a year ago, and fewer than 400 students in 2007.

The number of schools where the oral option is being offered rose from fewer than 160 in 2012 to 309 last year and has now reached 357, just under half of the country’s 720 second-level schools.