How does the educational system work in Ireland ?

Question

How does the educational system work in Ireland ?

Answer 1

You go to primary school until you're 12 or 13, then you go to secondary school until you're about 18, some schools do five years for the basic curriculum, and others do 6, with a transition year.

You do two State examinations while in secondary school, the first is the Junior Certificate (it used to be called the Intermediate Certificate, of 'the Inter') which you sit after 3 years; the second is your Leaving Certificate, which you sit in your last year at secondary school, and the results of which play a part in what type of third-level education you will follow.

The Leaving results are counted in points, and the higher the points, the more difficult the course - medicine, for example, has extremely high points. For some courses you need to attend an interview and talk about your portfolio, say for an art degree. You start your application process through an organisation called the CAO long before you actually sit your Leaving Cert, usually the applications have to be in by the end of February or so of the same year, and then you have something to work for ....

Then when you're in your course, it depends on the course. Art degrees do a foundation year, after which you go into the discipline that you are best suited to - and even then the boundaries between these are often blurred, as you can do modules for etching or ceramics while you're doing, say, painting.

Basically, with most other courses you go straight into your degree course once you've ascertained that you are suitably qualified. So if you qualify for a science degree, you just go in and do the course for 3 or 4 years (depending on the university, and we do not refer to third-level educational institutions as 'schools' in Ireland) and after this you graduate with a BSc. From then on you can do some kind of post-grad degree if you wish.

Nowadays all courses include a basic 'how to use a computer and the Internet section', as this might not have been taught in some secondary schools.

Answer 2

TERRIBLEY!!! hahaha ah we have primary school from age of 5 to 12, then secondary school from 13 to about 18 then off to college.