LATEST: Almost 4,000 Junior Cert students in Kildare receive their results today

The State Examinations Commission (SEC) congratulates all of the candidates who sat the Junior Cycle

examination in 2023 and whose results are issuing today.

Some 3,826 students in Kildare were among a total of 70,727 candidates who sat the exam - a 5% increase on 2022.

In a change to the traditional arrangements for the issue of results, from this morning school authorities can access the results in digital format through the SEC’s Schools Portal. School authorities will arrange to print the Statements of Provisional Results, which are in PDF format, and prepare them for issue to candidates. As in other years, the timing of the distribution of the results to candidates is at the discretion of the school authorities who exercise a common-sense approach in this regard.

Unlike in 2022, when results issued on 23 November, a combination of an increase in the number of teachers marking the examinations this year and the use of online marking in almost all Junior Cycle subjects has allowed for a return to a more normal timeframe for the issue of these results. The SEC is pleased to be able to provide the results this year in October noting that the 2019 Junior Certificate/Cycle results issued on the 4 October.

Overview

This is the second year of the SEC’s return to externally delivered Junior Cycle examinations for all candidates under the reformed Junior Cycle curriculum. In November 2020 and 2021, Junior Cycle examinations were held for adult learners and early school leavers only with examinations cancelled for all other candidates and replaced by school-based assessment.

Until 2019, only English, Science and Business Studies had been examined under the reformed Junior Cycle curriculum. Apart from Irish, English and Mathematics which are examined at Higher and Ordinary level, all other Junior Cycle subjects are now at Common level.

Some 629,189 grades in 21 individual subjects are being provided to 70,727 candidates this year. The overall number sitting Junior Cycle examinations has increased by 5% on 2022 and the proportion of candidates who are re-entrants to education has risen from 0.3 % of the cohort in 2022 to 0.4% in 2023.

Almost 600,000 of the 630,000 results issuing today are in subjects which were either full or partially marking using the online marking system.