In theory, any student in first year right now will never sit the Leaving Certificate for which current students are nervously preparing. Instead, they will complete Additional Assessment Components (AACs) worth 40 per cent of the total mark and sit reformed senior cycle exams in every subject.

While there are good aspects to the revised subjects, there are also serious problems. The new senior cycle is being introduced on a phased basis, so the first year of Ancient Greek, Arabic, biology, business, chemistry, climate action and sustainable development, drama, film and theatre studies, Latin, and physics has just been completed by fifth years.

While most of these are minority subjects, last year nearly 49,000 students sat exams in biology, chemistry and physics, while more than 20,000 sat business.

Although supportive of reform, after a year, none of the teachers’ initial concerns has abated but further ones have emerged.

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Given that only 60 per cent of the marks are allocated to the final........

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