What age(s) are you in fifth grade? The classes are differently schemed in Ireland.
Theres:
PRIMARY SCHOOL: 8 years of education
Junior Infants (usually ages 4-6, it's very seldom that you'll get a six year old.)
Senior Infants (5-6)
1st class (6-7)
2nd class (7-8)
3rd class (9-10)
4th class (10-11)
5th class (11-12)
6th class (12-13)
Primary school end, you go into secondary school. There are 5 or 6 years of education, depending on what you decide to do.
First year (13-14)
Second year(14-15) I'm in this year. Most people are 14 or under though, with maybe a few being 15 I am about 6th oldest in my year of 165 students)
Third year (15-16) You take your junior cert, or inter cert at this year. This is a big exam that is basically a mock of the leaving cert. After you do this, you can decide to do transition year, which is when you do different things like lear about business and do other subjects you usually wouldn't do.
Transition year (15-16, as the people who do it are usually young and decide to do it because of that fact.)
Fourth year (16-18)
Fifth year (17-18) You do your leaving cert at this stage. This is the big exam that you actually go to school for, because it decides what college course you will take when you go into college. Each percent you get in an honours subject is equal to one point. You can get a maximum of 600 points. Usually people would get around the 400 or 500 mark, unless they're handicapped. You need a certain amount of points and maybe a select few subjects to get the corresponding college course. Electrical engineering can be 425 points in one college and maybe 320 in another one. You also need to do higher level maths and a science subject. So if you get the required points, the colleges will look at your leaving cert, see what you got, and then decide if they'll offer you a place or not. Courses can last any time from 2 months to 6 or 7 years. Electrical engineering is 4 years. After that, you'll get a degree and can get a job or something, and live the rest of your long and boring life.
That was a long and relatively needless topic on the education system in Ireland.
