The Department of Education should cancel the Junior Certificate. There are multiple reasons why this should happen:

1. The Coronavirus is putting way too much pressure on students to learn how to study and homeschool themselves at such a short amount of time. There’s no routine and no motivation for them to study to. Yes students can make up a routine for them to work/study with, but teachers are sending work at ridiculous times like 9 or 10 o clock in the night or sending work or study after they have stopped for the day, telling them they have to have it done by so and so tomorrow. The work teachers are giving 3rd years is 2x more then what they would give in class (as class is full of distractions) and every teacher is doing this. The more work a teacher gives you, the more teachers you have, the more work that needs to be done and then the less time you have to study. 

2. For the people who want to leave after the Junior Certificate, just use the mocks results. Though they might have been good, give an option for the people who want to leave to re-do them. Don’t make the students who did well in their mocks to re-do them with the Leaving Certificate students. 

3. Not all of the materials are covered with students, people who find it hard to learn have to teach themselves a topic they have no idea about. There are some questions students can’t understand without someone explaining it to them in person. 

4. Parents are even finding it hard to help out with their children. Our parents only want what is best for us, not for us to be so much pressure all of the times. With all the work and expectations the teacher have for us is also taking a toll on a lot of students mental health, especially for ones who have depression, anxiety, autism, etc. With therapists and psychologists closed over the virus as they need to limit person to person contact, teens with mental health problems can’t get the help that they need and spiral into episodes that they can’t get out of to study or to actually work

5. If the Coronavirus hasn’t cleared up by the time the exams have started, social distancing will not happen within the exam period. There is 126,000 students with only 600 or even more places to hold the exams, students will be together and will not be 2 meters apart. This is only speed up the process of the virus and spread it more as people under 20 are main carriers of the virus. 

6. Prioritize the Leaving Certificate, people who are leaving school need to be more prioritize then people who are staying in school. This will free up more space for Leaving Certificate and decrease the risk of spreading the virus and will allow space for social distancing. For Leaving Certificates, this is their future ahead of them while with the Junior Certificate, it’s only a stepping stone for them towards the Leaving Certificate (the people who are staying in school)

Thank you for reading and I hope you take this into consideration, 
A fellow 3rd Year student.