THE PERCENTAGE of students taking the Leaving Certificate Irish exam is at its lowest level since records began.
Figures released by the State Exams Commission yesterday show only 82 per cent of Leaving Certs are taking the subject, compared with 90 per cent almost a decade ago. In previous decades, virtually every Leaving Cert student took Irish.
The low figure will renew controversy about the high number of exemptions awarded to students for Irish.
There was controversy recently when it was revealed many of those who secured an exemption from Irish were taking foreign languages.
Fine Gael has called for Irish to be an optional subject after the Junior Certificate amid signs of declining student interest.
But this is fiercely opposed by Fianna Fáil Ministers including Minister for Education Mary Coughlan.
Overall, the number of students sitting the Leaving Cert next week is at its highest for several years. This surge in student numbers will put further upward pressure on CAO entry points for college, already predicted to rise this year.
The commission figures show 55,783 entries for the exam which begins next Wednesday.
This is the highest number in five years. Students numbers are projected to increase dramatically over the next decade as demographic changes feed into second level school numbers.
The number taking the Leaving Cert this year is still some way behind the record figure of more than 68,000 in 1995.
Maths attracts the greatest number of student entries (53,559) with English (52,519) in second place.
Among European languages, French retains it dominant position attracting more than 28,000 students.
This is four times more than the number taking German.
Only 3,700 students will sit Spanish in the exam.
The SEC figures also indicate low numbers taking many science subjects, despite efforts by Government, business and teachers to foster greater interest among students.
Just over 7,000 students are taking physics and chemistry, and 5,200 are taking engineering.
The Leaving Cert exam begins with English Paper 1 and Home Economics next Wednesday, and continues until Friday, June 25th .
Results will be available on Wednesday, August 18th with the first round of CAO points to be published on the following Monday, August 23rd.
The commission is introducing measures to ensure no repetition of an incident last year where a superintendent in Co Louth handed out the wrong English paper. The rescheduling of the exam cost about €1 million.
The commission said the 60-year-old teacher responsible had not applied for exam work this year.
Ms Coughlan told the Dáil recently new measures would be introduced “which will contribute significantly to reducing the risk of a future recurrence of the problem which gave rise to the wrong paper being distributed to students”.