Record number of students begin Leaving Cert and Junior Cycle exams

A record number of Leaving Certificate and Junior Cycle students all around the country began their State exams this morning.

More than 136,000 students – the most since the examinations were introduced – sat down to take the first exam at 9:30am.

Leaving Certificate students had English paper one at 9:30 while Home Economics will take place at 2pm.

Junior Cycle students also had their English paper earlier this morning and will have Religious Studies at 1:30pm.

Overall, there will be roughly four million exam papers distributed to hundreds of secondary schools nationwide .

This year’s Leaving Certificate candidates will be the final year to benefit from a “postmarking adjustment” which will keep average results aligned with recent years.

The protocol was introduced by Minister for Education Norma Foley in a bid to recognise the disruption to teaching and learning caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.

The Leaving Certificate examinations will run until Tuesday, June 25, with the Junior Cycle exams coming to a close on Monday, June 17.