No date yet for results of Junior Cert - SEC

ALMOST 70,000 students who sat the Junior Cert this year face an agonising wait for their results, as the State Examinations Commission (SEC) admitted it still does not know when grades will be issued.

Normally released in midSeptember, results have been delayed indefinitely thanks to ‘a number of significant issues’, according to an SEC statement provided to the Irish Mail on Sunday.

The SEC said its marking system has been strained by an increase in the number of pupils taking the Junior Cert, Leaving Cert and Leaving Cert Applied exams this year, compared to the last time a full set of exams was run in 2019.

The increase amounts to more than 7,000 extra papers to correct across the three examinations.

The statement added: ‘The requirement for increased numbers of examiners across all subjects especially at Junior Cycle has been especially challenging in the current year.’

The SEC said it is currently prioritising re-marking Leaving Cert papers that have been appealed, and that ‘it is intended’ that these results will be available on Friday.

It said that work on Junior Cert exams is ongoing simultaneously ‘with marking complete in most subjects’. However, it conceded: ‘Given the priority afforded to the Leaving Certificate appeals, we are not yet able to provide a date for the issue of the Junior Cycle results at this time.’

The SEC said it ‘has a responsibility to examination candidates to ensure that their work is marked to the highest standards of quality and integrity, and the Commission must be able to stand over the results it issues each year’.