Polish is one of 15 "mother-tongue languages" that will be examined in the Leaving Cert.

This year, Romanian was examined for the first time yesterday. Bulgarian will make its Leaving Cert debut today.

A broad range of other languages, including Czech, Latvian, Hungarian, Slovakian, Estonian and Lithuanian, are also examined.

The State Exams Commission (SEC), the body responsible for overseeing the Junior and Leaving Certs, says that while the number sitting these exams is still relatively small, it has doubled in the past year.

Exams in these languages are based not on a Leaving Cert course, but on the European Baccalaureate - the exam taken by foreign nationals in the various European schools run by the European Union.

These 15 "non-curricular subjects" are examined along with 34 others, where an established curriculum exists.