A Chara, -According to The Irish Times (August 15th), 53,998 students sat the English papers in the Leaving Certificate in 2002 and 49,078 sat the Irish papers. Yet Brian Mooney (August 16th) states: "Of the 53,000 candidates sitting the standard Leaving Certificate, almost 8,000 failed to turn up for the Irish paper." Such a statement is erroneous and misleading. The results in Irish are impressive in that well over 75 per cent of students at all three levels of the Leaving Certificate class of 2002 acquired honours. Maith sibh a scoláirí! - Is mise,
MÁIRE NÍ LAOIRE, Uachtarán, Comhar na Múinteoirí Gaeilge