The Leaving Certificate Examination (LCE) is the final examination in the Irish secondary school system, and usually taken after the Junior Certificate Examination. Most students taking the examination are in the 17-19 age bracket, in excess of eighty percent of this group undertake the exam, although between socio-economic groups this varies greatly. There are three distinct programmes that can be followed, each requires at least two years study, examination is overseen by the State Examinations Commission:
School leavers who want to attend undergraduate courses in Irish colleges and universities have to enter the clearing house run by the Central Applications Office (CAO) and usually present with the Established Leaving Certificate. Six subjects are scored for the purposes of admission, points requirements are demand driven, institutions can also set minimum entry requirements in subjects.
Recently the Established Leaving Certificate underwent a process with UCAS to gain entry to the UCAS Tariff for direct entry to British universities. This introduced the examination into the centralised system with other awards in the UCAS system. On June 8th, 2004 it was decided that a Leaving Certificate (higher) subject will be worth two-thirds of an A-level (UK). Increasingly students from the Republic of Ireland attend university in Northern Ireland, and indeed vice-versa. Early indications [1] (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/3794527.stm) seem to show that Irish higher education institutions will adjust their evaluation of the A-level inline with the report.