9,000 Galway students begin Leaving and Junior Certs

Date Published: 08-Jun-2011

Over 3,000 students across the county and city are today facing into the second day of the Leaving Certificate after kicking off proceedings with a particularly topical English paper as well as home economics yesterday.

In total 6,363 are taking papers in the Leaving Cert, Applied Leaving Cert and the Junior Cert – 3,157, 112 and 3,094 respectively.

According to figures obtained from the State Examinations Commission (SEC) there are 129 more boys taking the exam in the county this year, while there are 74 more sitting the Junior Cert.

The numbers are down slightly on last year, when 78 more sat the

Leaving Cert, 26 more sat the Applied Leaving and 77 more sat the Junior Cert.

Students at the co-educational Coláiste Einde in Salthill were overwhelming happy with the first English paper.

The higher level paper featured extracts from Let The Great World Spin, the novel by Colm McCann, and a letter about cats by Irish Times foreign correspondent Lara Marlowe.

English teacher Brian Fahy said the essays would have suited students who are good writers and who had prepared well.

“There was great choice. Students are so well travelled these days, it was very topical. It was a fair paper. The ordinary level essays gave them plenty of chance to express their ideas and their own dreams of what they might do in the future,” he mused.

The ordinary level paper had a theme of travel and discovery and featured extracts on the astronaut Buzz Aldrin, travelling in Afghanistan and even the cult TV series Star Trek.

See full story and more photos in this week’s Connacht Tribune