Local students to sit State Exams

 

Almost 2,000 secondary school students in Cavan will sit their State exams starting today.

Some 819 students are to begin their Leaving Certificate at test centres at schools across Co Cavan, with a further 996 to sit the Junior Cert.

In neighbouring Co Monaghan, just over 790 students will sit the Leaving Cert, and 879 will sit their Junior Certificate exams.

A total of 108 students across the region are to begin sitting their Leaving Cert Applied exams.

There are 124,379 students sitting exams. This figure includes an increase in the numbers at Leaving Cert, Leaving Cert Applied and Junior Cert level.

Students started at 9.30am, with Leaving Cert students taking their English Paper 1. This will be followed by Home Economics for some, with English and CSPE first up in the junior cycle.

Some interesting statistics have emerged.

This year, 1,800 students will sit exams in a range of European languages, compared to just under 1,500 last year.

The number of native speakers taking the Polish exam is up by 20% in 2019, from 687 to 820.

An increase of 34% is meanwhile predicted among those sitting an examination in Romanian, from 267 last year to 359 this year.

The timetable also includes exams in Slovakian, Croatian, modern Greek, Estonian and Maltese.

A number of measures have been introduced this year by the State Examinations Commission in a bid to relieve any added undue stress on students sitting exams.

This include some changes to the timetable, and the addition of two extra days to the calendar.

Effort has been made also ensure minimal chance a student will have to sit three exams on a single day.

Results will also be issued on different dates to previous years.

Leaving Cert results will be issued a day earlier than usual, on Tuesday, August 13.

There is also set to be a tighter schedule around appealing results, and an expedited system for processing the outcomes of such an appeal.