How does the Irish Education system work?

I’m Australian and so have no idea how the Irish educational system works. Could someone please explain (preferably someone from Ireland) how it works. I don’t care about the University/College level (Third level is it?). I just want to know about the compulsory stuff.

The Compulsory part of the Irish education system is Primary School from age 5 to Junior Certificate at age 15/16.

Primary Cycle
Junior Infants
Senior Infants
1st Class to 6th Class

Junior Cycle
1st to 3rd Year (Approximately 10 subjects taken) English, Maths and Irish are mandatory for Irish citizens and residents for +7years

Transition Year (optional)

Senior Cycle
5th to 6th Year (Approximately 7 subjects taken) English, Maths and Irish are mandatory for Irish citizens and residents for +7years

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 30th, 2009 at 10:27 pm and is filed under irish. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

2 Responses to “How does the Irish Education system work?”

J.D. on July 1st, 2009 at 3:59 am

i am currently in secondary school in Ireland.
Nearly everyone goes to playschool than at about 4 or 5 you start primary school-it goes junior infants, senior infants, 1st,2nd,3rd,4th,5th and 6th class. Parents also often send their children to gael scoils, these are schools where the compulsory language is irish.(my nephew goes to one of these-they are getting more popular)and also you can got to an gael scoil for secondary school. In secondary the first 3 years are a course called your Junior cert.(ificate)or J.C. you sit the exam-most people do about 10-12 subjects. Then you can do a year called transition year or T.Y. which is kinda a year out.You still go to school but it not that school orientated. you go on trips, do plays and shows and have loads of guest speakers in.It’s compulsory in some schools.When you’re finished that you choose subjects for your Leaving cert(about 7) and study them for 2 years in more detail than you did for junior cert.You sit the exam and depending on the grade you get for each exam you get an allocated amount of points(the highest is 600)and this is what colleges will look at when you applying.
References :
i live in ireland and i’m doing my leaving cert
eorpach_agus_eireannach on July 1st, 2009 at 4:21 am

The Compulsory part of the Irish education system is Primary School from age 5 to Junior Certificate at age 15/16.

Primary Cycle
Junior Infants
Senior Infants
1st Class to 6th Class

Junior Cycle
1st to 3rd Year (Approximately 10 subjects taken) English, Maths and Irish are mandatory for Irish citizens and residents for +7years

Transition Year (optional)

Senior Cycle
5th to 6th Year (Approximately 7 subjects taken) English, Maths and Irish are mandatory for Irish citizens and residents for +7years
References :

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