- 1. Important information about Leaving Certificate examinations 2022
- 2. Video on the further adjustments to the written examinations
- 3. Details of the announcement on 1 February 2022 about the Leaving Certificate examinations
- 4. Your questions answered
- 5. Assessment arrangements for Junior and Leaving Certificate 2022
On 1 February 2022, Minister for Education Norma Foley TD announced extensive changes to the Leaving Certificate written examinations. You can read the full statement here .
On 8 February, The State Examinations Commission released the timetables for the 2022 certificate examinations which will commence on Wednesday 8 June. The Leaving Certificate examinations will run until Tuesday 28 June, the Leaving Certificate Applied examinations will conclude on Thursday 16 June and the Junior Cycle examinations will conclude on Monday 20 June.
The Leaving Certificate timetable follows the familiar format with the examinations in new Leaving Certificate Curricular subjects of Polish, Lithuanian, Portuguese and Mandarin Chinese scheduled to run in conjunction with the examinations in the non-Curricular languages on Monday 20 June.
The timetables may be accessed at www.examinations.ie.
Further details on the changes to the examinations are now available on the State Examinations Commission’s website www.examinations.ie.
They have been sent to schools, which have been requested to pass the information on to students.
A subject by subject guide is available in the document, ‘Further Adjustments to the Written Examinations’. All Leaving Certificate candidates are encouraged to familiarise themselves with these adjustments. In addition to this document, the best guide to these extensive changes are the 2021 examination papers, which are available from the Examination Material Archive on www.examinations.ie.
A video guide providing an overview of these further adjustments is available here .
The 2021 examination papers reflect the further adjustments and will be of assistance to teachers and students in their preparations for the 2022 Leaving Certificate.
You can find information about Junior Cycle examinations 2022 at the following page: Junior Cycle 2022.
The video below provides an overview on the further adjustments made to the 2022 Leaving Certificate written examinations.
The Minister for Education Norma Foley TD has today announced extensive changes to the Leaving Certificate written examinations. You can read the full statement here .
You can find information about Junior Cycle examinations 2022 here .
On 1 February 2022 Minister Foley announced that further extensive changes will be made to the 2022 Leaving Certificate examinations, to take account of the disruption to students’ teaching and learning during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Minister also announced that the overall set of Leaving Certificate results in 2022 will be no lower than in 2021, ensuring that the class of 2022 will not be disadvantaged.
Further details on the changes to the examinations will be available on this page and on the State Examinations Commission’s website www.examinations.ie this week. They will also be sent to schools, who will be requested to pass the information on to students.
The aim of these further changes is to lessen the load for students, as far as is reasonably possible. The changes will maintain the overall structure and layout of the examination paper so that the examination papers remain as familiar as possible to candidates. They will involve, in almost all cases, providing further choice to candidates by reducing the number of questions to be answered in the examination. While this will have the effect of also reducing the time needed to complete the examination, the duration of each examination will remain unchanged, thus substantively relieving time pressures.
Earlier adjustments to the assessment examinations for the Leaving Certificate 2022 were announced in August 2021. These are available here . The additional and extensive changes being announced today are in acknowledgement of the challenges that students have faced and build on the changes that were notified to students in August.
The link for the Candidate Self Service Portal is now live and can be accessed here .
Please note all steps have to be completed by 5pm Tuesday 15 February.
Examination fees for the 2022 Leaving Certificate and Junior Cycle examinations have been waived.
Students will not have to pay the fees which would usually be €116 and €109 for the Leaving Certificate and Junior Cycle examinations respectively.
You can read the full statement here .
An alternative set of Leaving Certificate examinations will be run in 2022, shortly following the main set of examinations. These examinations will be limited to certain categories of students, including those who experience a close family bereavement, COVID-19 illness and certain other categories of serious illness, during the first examination period. There will be strict eligibility criteria applying to this contingency sitting.
The Minister made an announcement on 20 December 2021 regarding the arrangements for Leaving Certificate Oral Examinations in Irish and the Modern Foreign Languages and the practical performance tests in Leaving Certificate Music.
These examinations will take place outside of school time over the first week of the school Easter holidays, with the examinations running in schools during the six-day period Saturday 9 April to Thursday 14 April inclusive. Working with the State Examinations Commission (SEC), and the SEC examiners assigned to the school in each subject, schools will have some flexibility in scheduling the examinations during this period based on local needs.
Running the oral examinations before Easter will leave students free over the second week of the Easter holidays.
All aspects of the examinations will be conducted in accordance with the prevailing Public Health advice.
Holding these examinations over Easter and outside of school time will minimise disruption for schools and students. Read the full announcement here: https://www.gov.ie/en/press-release/a0421-meeting-held-of-advisory-group-on-planning-for-state-examinations-2022 .
The SEC in December 2021 provided details of arrangements for the completion, authentication and submission of Coursework.
The purpose of the SEC circular, available here , was to provide information in relation to (a) the completion, authentication, submission and marking of coursework for 2022. This included information in relation to the extension to 2022 of the exceptional arrangements that were put in place in 2021 due to the ongoing, unprecedented circumstances associated with COVID-19.
The extensive changes being announced to the examinations are in acknowledgement of the challenges that students have faced. They build on the changes already made to the papers and notified to students last August. These combined changes mean that students need not be concerned that they will be disadvantaged compared to their peers. The exams will be structured in a familiar way, but with more choice and a reduction in the number of questions to be answered.
Students sitting the Leaving Certificate this year have expressed concerns about ‘grade inflation’, and that students from previous years may have obtained results which may make it more difficult for the class of 2022 to compete for places in higher education. Minister Foley in her announcement on 1 February noted "I am very conscious of student fears about competing with students from previous years, many of whose Leaving Certificate results have been higher than in an average year. To alleviate this concern, I have asked the SEC to put in place measures to ensure that the overall set of results in the aggregate for this year will be no lower than last year. This means that the class of 2022 will not be disadvantaged compared to the class of 2020 or 2021.
Entry to higher education in Ireland is through application process run by the central applications office. Information on how the points for entry for higher education courses are calculated can be found on www.cao.ie .
Once the date for the issue of Leaving Certificate results is announced, the Department of Education will communicate this date to the national authorities in the countries to which Irish students generally apply for higher education places.
At this stage, it will also be important that applicants advise the Admissions Office of relevant higher education institution to which they are applying of the results date.
An email address for queries will be provided at this time.
In December 2020, changes were announced to the Leaving Certificate and Junior Cycle assessment arrangements.
These have been updated to include, where relevant:
- revised dates for the submission of coursework, for the school year 2021/22
- the new assessment arrangements in Junior Cycle subjects being examined for the first time in 2022 including: Technology Subjects, Jewish Studies, Classics and Religious Education
The revised changes at Leaving Certificate level are available here.
For more on Junior Cycle, see here .
This summary advice note sets out the key curriculum and assessment arrangements for LCA Year 1 and Year 2 students in the 2021/22 school year.
Leaving Certificate Applied 2021-22
Summary advice note for school management and teachers of LCA 2021/22
DownloadOn 30 June the Minister for Education announced that there would be adjustments made to the assessment arrangements for students due to sit State examinations in 2022, to take account of the disruption to their learning as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
A revised document, with changes to reflect syllabus content specific to the 2022 State Examinations has been published and communicated to all schools.
The adjustments to be put in place will leave intact the familiar overall structure of the examinations, while incorporating additional choice for students in the examinations.
There will be no change to the length of the written examinations.
The Minister made a further announcement on 20 December 2021 regarding the arrangements for Leaving Certificate Oral Examinations in Irish and the Modern Foreign Languages and the practical performance tests in Leaving Certificate Music.
These examinations will take place outside of school time over the first week of the school Easter holidays, with the examinations running in schools during the six-day period Saturday 9 April to Thursday 14 April inclusive. Working with the State Examinations Commission (SEC), and the SEC examiners assigned to the school in each subject, schools will have some flexibility in scheduling the examinations during this period based on local needs.
Providing clarity to students on the timing of the examinations will assist them in planning their study and break times. Running the oral examinations before Easter will leave students free over the second week of the Easter holidays.
All aspects of the examinations will be conducted in accordance with the prevailing Public Health advice.
Holding these examinations over Easter and outside of school time will minimise disruption for schools and students. Read the full announcement here: https://www.gov.ie/en/press-release/a0421-meeting-held-of-advisory-group-on-planning-for-state-examinations-2022.
It is also proposed that an alternative set of Leaving Certificate examinations will be run in 2022, shortly following the main set of examinations. These examinations will be limited to certain categories of students, such as those that experience a close family bereavement, COVID-19 illness and certain other categories of serious illness, during the first examination period.
All arrangements for the 2022 state examinations will be guided by prevailing public health advice at the time.
Read the full announcement here.
Wellbeing support for Leaving Certificate students, parents and school staff is available here
