More than 3,600 Mayo students start State exams today
A total of 140,457 students nationwide due this morning to commence their Leaving Certificate, Leaving Certificate Applied and Junior Cycle examinations across the country.
In Mayo, 1,659 pupils are expected to sit their Leaving Cert with a further 141 enrolled for Leaving Cert Applied.
Sitting their Junior Certificate meanwhile will be 1,930 students in Cavan secondary schools.
The exams are hosted by the State Examinations Commission (SEC) to hold the certificate examinations, which will run until Tuesday, June 24, for Leaving Certificate (Established and Vocational); Thursday, June 12, for Leaving Certificate Applied and Monday, June 16, for Junior Cycle examinations.
Many students will finish earlier depending on their subject choices.
This year sees another record number of candidates due to sit examinations, which is linked to demographic increases, with the numbers entered passing 140,000 for the first time, up three per cent on last year.
Speaking before the start of the examinations, Jacinta Stewart, chairperson of the State Examinations Commission (SEC), said: “Today marks a real milestone in the educational journey for the thousands of candidates taking the State examinations.
"On behalf of my fellow Commissioners and the staff of the SEC, I want to offer our sincere best wishes to all those taking examinations this year.
"I also want to express my appreciation to parents and families as well as school communities for supporting these candidates at this very important time in their lives.”
Ms. Stewart also expressed her particular thanks to principals, teachers, special needs assistants, and other school staff for they work they doing in facilitating the holding of the examinations.
The SEC has been asked by the Department of Education to implement a gradual return to normal Leaving Certificate outcomes beginning in 2025.
This SEC will commence this process by applying a post-marking adjustment, after all marking in the 2025 Leaving Certificate examinations is completed, in order to bring the overall Leaving Certificate results in the aggregate on average to a point broadly midway between the 2020 and 2021 levels.
The SEC intends to issue the 2025 Leaving Certificate and Leaving Certificate Applied examination results to candidates on Friday, August 22, which is in line with the date of issue of the results in 2024.