The class of 2025 is the largest group to sit the Leaving Certificate exams for the first time (excluding those repeating) at 60,937. This is an increase of 4,146 or 7.3 per cent on the 56,791 who sat the examination in 2024.
The increase is a reflection of the rise in birth rate during the Celtic Tiger and the increased immigration of recent years, best exemplified by the fact that 549 students sat Ukrainian, which was offered for the first time this year.
The effect of these additional 4,146 students on CAO entry requirements will become evident next Wednesday when the first-round third-level offers are issued.
This year’s results are the first where the students’ grades are not adjusted upwards to the same level as those awarded to candidates who completed their Leaving Cert studies in 2021.
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That year, candidates secured results on average 7 per cent ahead of those secured pre-Covid-19 (by those who sat the Leaving Cert in 2019).
Minister for Education Helen McEntee committed earlier this year to gradually reduce the enhancement of the originally marked scripts to no less than 5.5 per cent over and above those awarded in 2021.
Following the adjustment, the average level of increase has dropped from 7 per cent in 2021 to 5.9 per cent. To achieve this result, the average increase over and above the marks awarded by the correcting teachers was 6.8 per cent, down from 7.5 per cent in 2024.
How this year’s results will affect the CAO points requirements for 2025 is of huge concern to those receiving their Leaving Cert results this morning.
It is also of concern to the 19,782 former Leaving Cert candidates who sat the examination in previous years and who will be among those competing with the class of 2025 for places in college courses this year.
The decrease in enhancement reflected in the 438,000 grades awarded in the 2025 Leaving Cert has resulted in 229,275, or 52.4 per cent, securing one grade higher than they received from the correcting examiner. This compares with 68 per cent in 2024 and 71.1 per cent in 2023.
What does this mean for the class of 2025? If 68,565 fewer grades were awarded in the enhancement process in 2025 than would have occurred if the State Exams Commission had continued to enhance them by 7 per cent, then each of the 60,937 students receiving their results on Friday will have at least one enhanced grade less than the equivalent students from 2021-2024. This translates into 12 CAO points.
The pattern of increasing numbers of students taking subjects at higher level has continued in 2025. The number of students taking higher level papers has increased from 68 to 73 per cent – the exceptions being design and communications graphics and Irish. This will be of concern to those who wish to retain the centrality of the Irish language in our education system up to and including the Leaving Cert. It may also strengthen the hand of those who want to make the study of Irish optional at Leaving Cert level.
The movement of the entire Leaving Cert operation online has continued apace in 2025. The number of pieces of coursework submitted online increased from 35,000 in 2024 to 85,000 this year.
Of the 440,000 subject results processed, 410,000, or 94 per cent, were corrected online by advising examiners. The final step in the process will be when the candidates themselves sit in front of computers in their schools to enter their answers directly into an online system.