School exams - Constants in our changing school life

Nearly 117,000 young people begin State exams this morning, sitting the Leaving Cert, the Leaving Cert Applied and the Junior Cert.

Now a long-established setpiece along the road to adulthood and eventual independence, these exams mark the end of formal education for some, but for others they are just another important step towards a third-level qualification.

For a long time it has been difficult to impress upon students how very important these exams are without creating or adding to unnecessary stress at an already challenging time. Parents, and the media too, all play their part in this self-perpetuating merry go round, but it is difficult to see how it might be otherwise, especially as young people’s lives are so very full of distractions.