Welcome to the Classroom Central digest. In this edition we report on plans for Leaving Cert students to take an oral exam in English at the end of fifth year where they will be quizzed on plays or books they have studied. Clare Finegan reports on how private counselling sessions are the new school grinds. Joe Humphreys asks if grind schools create an injustice at the heart of our education system.

As is the case with all languages, immersion in Irish is key to success when it comes to an oral exam - Brian Mooney examines how to approach the Irish Oral for the Leaving Certificate.

About one in 20 schoolchildren are being diagnosed with autism, a threefold increase in less than a decade, Department of Education figures show - Carl O’Brien reports.

A recent study found that many students with special needs at second level struggle to decide what to do after school and feel official sources of advice are not helpful.

A Central Statistics Office (CSO) study has found that most parents believe their children’s social development has been negatively affected by school closures during the Covid pandemic, writes Carl O’Brien.