More than 113,000 students began their Leaving and Junior Certificate exams this morning at centres throughout the country.
This year sees 52,000 pupils enrolled for the Leaving Certificate - the lowest number in more than 20 years.
Romanian and Bulgarian are to be examined for the first time. They are the most recent of 15 European languages that have been added to the Leaving Certificate examination for EU students for whom they are a mother tongue.
24 candidates have enrolled to sit the Romanian exam. Just a handful have opted for Bulgarian.
Over the next few weeks around three million exam papers will be handed out.
Overall the numbers sitting the exams continue to decline due to demographics. Numbers are not expected to rise again until around 2012.
Politicians and teachers' unions have wished all candidates well. Their advice - as always – is to eat well, exercise and sleep, stay focused and keep things in perspective.
Reform
The Minister for Education, Mary Hanafin, has said if returned as minister she intends to press ahead with reforming Leaving and Junior Cert exams.
Speaking on RTÉ Radio's Morning Ireland, the minister said students sitting the Leaving Certificate English paper today will write non-stop for six hours and ten minutes.
She also said she wanted to bring Paper One into May to reduce the stress on students.
