Students might have been required to wear face masks and have daily temperature checks if the Leaving Certificate exams had gone ahead this summer.
The State Examinations Commission made the warning in a briefing given to the Minister for Education as part of deliberations as to whether or not to proceed with the exams.
In an assessment of how summer exams might be conducted the SEC outlined a timetable which saw the exams running for over a month, beginning on 29 July and running until 5 September, with just one exam per day.
It warned that this 32 day timetable carried the risk of "diminishing attendance by students and school staff". The SEC outlined a complex series of challenges, beginning with the fact that students would most likely