UNEMPLOYMENT, INDUSTRIAL relations problems and the impact of high interest rates on business were just some of the challenging subjects facing 20,000 students of Leaving Certificate business yesterday.

The higher paper reflected trends in the economy, said Marguerite Norris of the Business Teachers Association of Ireland.

“This syllabus has not been updated in 10 years, but it has the capacity to accommodate changing economic circumstances, as today’s paper demonstrated,” said Ms Norris.

“The whole syllabus was covered and students needed to be familiar with all the basic business calculations. It was a very challenging exam.”

Students who follow current business affairs would have had a distinct advantage in yesterday’s exam as the questions mirrored recent economic developments in Ireland, said one teacher.

Some students were thrown by the unusual expression of a question on break-even charts, which had not come up in yesterday’s format before.

A question on the role of EU institutions in the short question section was also unexpected.

Students were asked to detail grounds for unfair dismissal, and provide examples of environmentally sustainable business practice.

A case study on the Castlewest Hotel and conference centre also featured.

“This exam was a mix of the difficult and the straightforward,” said John McDonnell of Jesus and Mary Secondary School in Mayo. “There was an emphasis on understanding and in-depth knowledge.Students were asked to come up with concrete examples and demonstrate that they could apply their learning.”

The paper was regarded as very long and some students complained that they had trouble finishing within the time.

The style of the paper was also regarded as quite different from previous years.

“Terms such as analyse, evaluate, discuss and illustrate featured strongly on yesterday’s higher paper,” said John McDonnell of the ASTI.

A topical question on the impact of trade unions on the labour force demanded “high-level thinking” from students, one teacher commented.

Industrial relations featured strongly on the paper, with another question tasking students to describe two types of official industrial action a trade union can undertake as part of a trade dispute.

“This was a paper to keep all students busy,” said Ms Norris.

Almost 4,000 students took yesterday’s ordinary level paper.

Topics included a discussion of the impact of Irish people shopping in Northern Ireland and technology in business.

“The ordinary level paper was interesting in that it drew heavily on current economic affairs,” said MS Norris. “Students were asked to draft a bar chart based on the unemployment figures of the last three years.”

Mr McDonnell described the ordinary level paper as “predictable”.