Education Minister Ruairi Quinn is wishing 116,845 students across the country the best of luck as they begin the State exams this morning.
The Minister said:
This is an important time for all of the students involved and I wish them good luck as they start their exams.
Over the next couple of weeks students have an opportunity to show all they have learned over the last few years, and marks the culmination of their hard work.
The Minister also recognised this can be a stressful time for students, and urged them to avail of the excellent supports offered by teachers, parents, families and friends at this time.
Initial figures show that 53,749 Leaving Certificate students, 2,853 Leaving Certificate Applied students and 60,243 Junior Certificate students will be taking the exams.
Almost 90 curricular subjects will be examined, with components including oral, aural, written and practical tests, journals, reports and portfolios. In addition, native speakers from other EU countries will sit examinations in their mother tongue at Leaving Certificate level in 15 non-curricular languages, such as Czech, Latvian and Polish.
This is the first year that all Junior Cert students will be examined in at least some elements of the Project Maths curriculum. Those sitting the Leaving Cert will be answering questions from the new syllabus for the second year. This year, senior-cycle students will be examined in four of the five strands of the new programme.
For the second year running, students sitting Higher Level Maths in the Leaving Cert can gain 25 bonus CAO points. Increased numbers of students have opted to take the Higher Level Paper.
The Minister commented:
I am delighted that 4,000 additional students this year are opting to sit the Higher Level Maths paper. Whilst students can change their minds about this up to the time of the exam itself, students should have faith in their ability.
Oral and practical exams took place in April and May.