Free upper second-level education was eventually introduced in September 1967, and is now widely seen as a milestone in Irish history.
The Irish language remains a core subject taught in all public schools, with exemptions given to individual pupils on grounds of significant periods lived abroad, learning difficulties and other similar and/or valid reasons.
Children typically enrol in a Junior Infants class at age four or five, depending on parental wishes.
The Junior Certificate examination is sat in all subjects (usually 10 or 11) in early-June, directly after the end of Third Year.
The Senior Cycle is a two-year programme to prepare students for the Leaving Certificate examinations.
These "mocks" are not state examinations: independent companies provide the exam papers and marking schemes – and are therefore not mandatory across all schools.
The primary school system consists of eight years: Junior and Senior Infants, and First to Sixth Classes.
In 1990 the first Muslim National School (originally on the South Circular Road, now in Clonskeagh) gained recognition and state funding from the Department of Education,[13] and in 2001 a second Muslim National school was established on the Dominican campus on the Navan road in north Dublin.
Irish law allowed schools under church (or other religious ethos) control to consider religion as the main factor in admissions.
The United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child in Geneva asked James Reilly, the Minister for Children at that time, to explain the continuation of preferential access to state-funded schools on the basis of religion.
He said that the laws probably needed to change, but noted it may take a referendum because the Irish constitution gives protections to religious institutions.
A petition initiated by a Dublin attorney, Paddy Monahan, received almost 20,000 signatures in favour of overturning the preference given to Catholic children.
[17] Ireland's main Muslim representative bodies, have praised the Irish education sector and catholic run schools for being accommodating to the needs of pupils from their community.
In 2022, the Programme for International Student Assessment (Pisa) found Ireland to be 2nd in reading and 11th in mathematics in a world survey at the age of 15.
Transition Year is a one-year informal course taken by an increasing number of students usually ages 15 or 16.
The range of activities in Transition Year or Fourth Year differs greatly from school to school, but many include activities such as work experience placements, project work, international trips or exchanges and excursions.
of TY believe that it allows students an extra year to mature, engage in self-directed learning, explore career options and to choose subjects for senior cycle (the results of the Junior Certificate examination do not become available until midway through September, by which time students not taking Transition Year will already have chosen their classes and begun attending).
Opponents believe that a year away from traditional study and the classroom environment can distract students and cause problems when they return to the Senior Cycle.
The Leaving Certificate Examination, with required exams in English, Irish, and Maths (barring exemptions), and 3 or 4 optional subjects, is taken after two years of study, usually at the ages of 17–19.
[35][36] The National Council for Special Education (NCSE) supports students with physical and intellectual disabilities.
The project is part of the Department of Education's newest round of school capital investment, which seeks to improve the learning environment for about 23,000 pupils as well as teacher working conditions.
[46][47][48][49][50][51][52][53][54][55][56][57][excessive citations] The increased resources under the program include reduced class sizes.
[60] In March 2022, Norma Foley, the minister for education, announced an expansion of the program to include an additional 310 schools (273 primary and 37 post-primary).
Standard Easter, Christmas and mid-term breaks are published by the Department of Education for the upcoming years.