"We will always be the ones who didn't pass our Bac", so reads a headline in France’s Le Monde newspaper this week. On Friday the country became the latest to cancel its final exam for second level students - the equivalent of our Leaving Certificate - and Le Monde notes that the response from students has been mixed.
There is relief, but disappointment too, it says. An initial "explosion of joy" has been followed by expressions of regret. "I’m glad I don’t have to revise", one student tells the newspaper, "but this was a moment we were all supposed to go through together".
It may be of little comfort to Irish Leaving Certificate students, but the difficult situation they are facing is one shared by hundreds of thousands of students