Over 800 Sligo students begin their Leaving Certificate examinations
Some 790 students across County Sligo began their Leaving Certificate examinations this morning (Wednesday). A further 66 students sat the Applied Leaving Certificate while there are 996 sitting the Junior Certificate exams.
Some 136,160 candidates sat their Leaving Certificate, Leaving Certificate Applied and Junior Cycle examinations across the country in 5,849 main and some 9,500 special examination centres through the network of over 800 post-primary schools, and other venues recognised by the State Examinations Commission (SEC).
Delivery of the State Examinations is a massive logistical exercise involving the secure distribution of circa 4 million examination papers to the examination superintendents responsible for supervising the written examinations.
The examinations will run until Tuesday 25 June for Leaving Certificate (Established and Vocational); Thursday 13 June for Leaving Certificate Applied; and Monday 17 June for Junior Cycle examinations.
This year sees another record number of candidates due to sit examinations which is linked to demographic increases, with the numbers entered passing 136,000 for the first time. The number expected to sit the 2024 certificate examinations has increased by 1% (+1,127) compared to last year’s entry figure of 135,033 candidates, with the most significant increases in the cohorts entered for the Leaving Certificate Applied programme (+6%) and the Junior Cycle programme (+3%).
Speaking before the start of the examinations Mr. Martin Sisk, interim Chairperson of the State Examinations Commission said: “There is no doubt that the State Examinations are a landmark event in the lives of young people and their families. On behalf of my fellow Commissioners and all of the staff of the SEC, I wish to offer sincere best wishes to all those taking the certificate examinations this year and also to the parents, guardians, and families who have supported candidates through their educational journey up to this point.”
The SEC intends to issue the 2024 Leaving Certificate and Leaving Certificate Applied examination results to candidates on Friday 23 August which is in line with the date of issue of the results in 2023.
Following the announcement in April by Minister for Education Norma Foley TD, that the overall 2024 Leaving Certificates results in the aggregate will be no lower on average than those in 2023, the SEC will again apply a post-marking adjustment after all marking in the Leaving Certificate examinations is completed.
The results of the Leaving Certificate have been maintained at 2021 levels through the application of a post-marking adjustment in both 2022 and 2023. This requires a process of analysis to be undertaken on the marks achieved in the examinations and, on foot of this analysis, an adjustment to the marks awarded to candidates through the marking process. T
he SEC has an absolute responsibility to examination candidates to ensure that their work is marked to the highest standards of quality and integrity and the Commission must be able to stand over the results it issues each year.
By its nature, the post marking adjustment can only be applied once all of the marking has been completed and so this step adds time to the results process in comparison to a normal (pre-Covid) year. The Leaving Certificates results issue date of Friday 23 August takes account of the time needed for an extensive range of quality assurance checks to be undertaken on the results.
The date for the release of the 2024 Junior Cycle results will be announced at a later date.
