3,000 Westmeath students start exams this week

Close to 3,000 students in Westmeath are doing the Leaving and Junior Cert, starting today Wednesday, June 8.

Sitting down to the Leaving Cert will be 686 females and 718 males, giving a total of 1,404. For the Junior, the figures are 734 female and 714 male, for a total of 1,448.

Twenty one students (10 female, 11 male) are expected to do the Leaving Certificate Applied.

These candidates are among the national total of more than 120,000, who will sit their exams at 5,000 centres.

Pat Burke, the chairman of the State Examinations Commission (SEC), sent his best wishes and those of his fellow commissioners on behalf of the SEC to all sitting the state examinations in 2016.

“The state examinations represent the culmination of much hard work by students, their families and schools,” he said in a statement at the weekend.

“The commission is committed to ensuring that the examinations are conducted to the highest standards in an open, and fair manner. It is our objective to enable each candidate display his or her achievements during what can be a stressful time.

“I know that the continued support of families and the wider education community and beyond is essential at this time. The commission wishes all those involved the very best over the coming three weeks of examinations.”

From the June bank holiday weekend, some 5,000 superintendents involved in supervising the written examinations will take possession of the locked boxes containing the 4 million examination papers that are required by candidates over the 13-day examination period.

More than 4,300 examiners will then be involved in marking the work presented by candidates in the written examinations. This is in addition to over 2,300 examiners required to mark the oral and practical tests.

The examinations run until Thursday 23 June for Junior Certificate subjects and Friday 24 June for Leaving Certificate subjects.

The written examinations in the Leaving Certificate Applied programme finish on Thursday 16th June. The results of the Leaving Certificate examinations will be available on Wednesday August 17. Results of the Junior Certificate will be available in mid-September 2016.