JUNIOR CERT BUSINESS HIGHER AND ORDINARY:HIGHER-LEVEL Junior Cert business students sat two papers yesterday, one with an emphasis on personal finance and a second with a broader business outlook.

Both papers were regarded as “decent” and “predictable” and followed very similar lines to previous years.

Paper 1 featured some very practical exercises in personal finance and counted for 60 per cent of the overall mark.

“There was a nice practical question asking students to interpret a bank statement,” said Pat Morris of ASTI. Students were also asked to plan a household budget and fill out a health insurance form.

Paper 2 posited the scenario of a couple who have lost their jobs considering how to invest their redundancy money, among other topics.

Ordinary-level students sat one paper in the morning, which followed the patterns of previous years, according to teachers.

Mr Morris is a member of the business studies course committee, which has been examining the future of the Junior Cert syllabus.

“There are concerns in the profession that business studies might be downgraded as a Junior Certificate subject in a revised Junior Cert curriculum,” he said. “There have been suggestions that only core subjects will be examined. We are worried that business studies will not be a core subject.”

Half of all Junior Cert students currently take the subject and about 19,000 go on to take it at Leaving Cert level. “If business studies is not examined the take-up might be affected,” said Morris. “There has never been a more important time to educate people in the principles of business, as potential business owners but also as consumers. We are calling on the Minister for Education and Skills not to sideline this subject.”