Man passes 27 Leaving Cert subjects

The Waterford man who sat 30 Leaving Cert subjects in the June exams has passed 27 of them, securing a total of 490 points.

The Waterford man who sat 30 Leaving Cert subjects in the June exams has passed 27 of them, securing a total of 490 points.

Eoin Jackson (35) took on the massive challenge to help raise funds for the education project he helps to run for early school-leavers.

Opening his results early this morning, Mr Jackson was delighted to find he had done well.

He failed just three subjects: applied maths, ancient biblical Hebrew and accounting.

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“There’s no accounting for that,” he joked.

His three best subjects were biology, in which he secured an A1, music, a B1 and geography, a B2.

These are also the three subjects he teaches.

“I was expecting an A in geography so that was disappointing,” he said.

The full list of subjects, including self-taught ancient biblical Hebrew studies, was: English, Irish (ordinary), French (o), German (o), Spanish (o), Italian (o), Russian (o), Japanese (o), Swedish (o), Maths, Applied Maths, Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Agricultural Science, Home Economics, Economics, Business Studies, Accounting, Religion, Classical Studies, History, Geography, Art, Music, Construction Studies, Engineering, Design Communication Graphics, and Technology.

He sat 20 of the papers at higher level.

Mr Jackson is now focusing on handing out results to his 80 Leaving Cert students at the XLc Project, which teaches early school leavers and students who have fallen into difficulties or been expelled from other schools.

He said a “good few” of the students had done well this year but there were some who had not passed and were disappointed.

The family-run school, which is not funded by the State, was established by his mother, ex-nun Nuala Jackson, in 1998.

Mr Jackson said the school would keep going next year, despite the lack of any support from the State.

“I think if we were at risk of closure, there is so much good will towards this project someone would keep us going,” he said.

He took on the daunting task of doing 30 exams last June as a “personal challenge” and as a way of attracting support and attention for the school, but he ruled out taking on so many exam subjects again next year.

“It was too much hassle for everyone. It wasn’t ideal having me doing all that,” he said.

To date, the XLc Project has put about 700 early school-leavers from the southeast and other parts of the country through the Leaving Cert and Junior Cert exams.

This year, 80 students sat the Leaving Cert and a further 20 took Junior Cert exams.