Laois Leaving Cert numbers jump as exams begin

The number of students sitting the Leaving Cert 2025 has risen compared to the previous year, while the figure for students taking both Leaving and Junior Cert examinations in the country seems to have stabilised.  

Nearly 2,500 students begin their Junior and Leaving Certificate examinations in Laois on Wednesday, May 4 at schools in Portlaoise, Portarlington, Mountmellick, Rathdowney, Mountrath, Clonaslee, Knockbeg, Ballinakill. 

Figures from the State Exams Commission (SEC) show that the number of students taking the Leaving, Junior and Leaving Cert Applied (LCA) exams has dropped slightly to 2,420 from 2,424 in 2024. However, it is still up on the 2,332 who sat the exams in 2023.

Leaving Cert figures are up on 2024. A total of 1,134 secondary school students and some adult learners are projected to sit the final exam of their school days. Of the total, 96 students signed up for Leaving Cert Applied while the remainder, 1,038, are sitting the regular Leaving Cert. A total of 1,113 students sat the final exam in 2023 in Laois. 

There are more Junior Certificate students, in total 1,287, than Leaving Certs. However, this figure represents a slight fall on the 1,308 who sat the equivalent exam in 2024.

Nationally, the Commission says that some 136,160 exam candidates were due to commence their 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 SEC

Nationally, some 140,457 candidates are due to commence their Leaving Certificate, Leaving Certificate Applied and Junior Cycle examinations across the country. This is up by about 4,000 on 2024.

About 4 million examination papers were distributed in advance of the written examinations.

The SEC says 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.

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The SEC says the number entered to take the 2025 certificate examinations has increased by 3% (+4,297) compared to last year’s entry figure of 136,160 candidates, with the most significant increases in the numbers entered for the Leaving Certificate programme (5%) and Leaving Certificate Applied programme (+11%).

Jacinta Stewart, Chairperson of the State Examinations Commission, spoke on May 4 before the start of the examinations. MORE BELOW PICTURE.

Pic: Pexels/Andy Barbour

“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,” she said in a statment.

Ms Stewart also thanked principals, teachers, special needs assistants, and other school staff for facilitating the examinations. She paid special mention to the teachers who work as written examiners and superintendents.

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, to bring the Leaving Certificate results in the aggregate on average to a point 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 22 August which is in line with the date of issue of the results in 2024.

The SEC says developing and applying the post-marking adjustment 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.

The SEC says that 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 results issue date of Friday 22 August takes account of the time needed for this additional step. The timeline for results must also allow sufficient time for an extensive range of quality assurance checks to be undertaken.