Continuous assessment will become a key part of Leaving Cert exams under major reforms announced this afternoon.
40% of exam marks in all subjects will be by continuous assessment with written exam deciding the rest.
NEW: Major revision of the Leaving Cert has been announced. All subjects to be reviewed with 60% of marks for the exam and 40% continuous assessment. Two new LC subjects also being announced from 2024
— Seán Defoe (@SeanDefoe) March 29, 2022
The curricula for all subjects will be reviewed with new syllabus starting in 2024.
Two new subjects will also be created - 'Drama, Film and Theatre Studies'; and 'Climate Action and Sustainable Development'.
Paper one in English and Irish will now be taken at the end of fifth year for students starting with those entering senior cycle in September 2023.
Education Minister Norma Foley says it's time the Leaving Cert changed:
"We know that examinations are not capable of measuring all the competencies that we want young people to develop.
"We know too that having to rely on a single written examination can be stressful on students.
"To spread the assessment load - I have decided that one of the papers in Irish and English will be taken at the end of fifth year."
The Teacher's Union of Ireland has welcomed some aspects of the review, such as the availability of Transition Year to all schools.
However, it's calling for all continuous assessment components to be examined externally.
General Secretary of the TUI Michael Gillespie says the State Examinations Commission should facilitate that:
"The key thing is that it must be done by the State Exams because at the moment we hold the Leaving Cert as a brand and as an exam in very high esteem - as does the world.
"We have to maintain that, and do it by the exams being controlled by the State Exams Commission."
