merrion street

Education Minister Ruairí Quinn has sent his congratulations to the 55,815 students who will be collecting their Leaving Certificate results in person at their schools, by phone and on-line from this morning.

The waiting is now over for our almost 56,000 Leaving Cert students. I hope that the results they receive today reflect the work they have put into their studies over the past two years.

The highest number of students ever sat Higher Level Maths this year. 22.1% of all Maths students took the higher level paper, compared to 15.8% last year.

I am particularly heartened to see the large jump of 35% in the number of students taking Higher Level Maths. There is no doubt that the 25 bonus points for all those who achieve a D3 or higher in the subject has made a significant impact as has the continued roll-out of Project Maths.

For the first time, all students were examined on two of the five strands of the new Project Maths syllabus. The number of students receiving an A at higher level has remained broadly the same as recent years; however, the overall percentage of A students is down due to the higher numbers of candidates.

The other main change to the Leaving Cert this year was in Irish where the oral component of the exams now accounts for 40% of the marks awarded. The number of students taking higher level Irish has increased by almost 5% to 37.1%.

Minister Quinn continued:

While many will be awaiting the CAO announcements next week, I would also encourage those who may be disappointed with their results today to seriously consider the other options available to them such as further education level 5 and 6 FETAC awards. These offer fantastic opportunities and also an alternative route to higher education, if that is your wish.

A total of 55,815 students sat their Leaving Cert this year; this is down about 3.2% on the number last year. Of these, 52,589 sat the Established Leaving Cert and Leaving Cert Vocational Programme and 3,226 sat the Leaving Cert Applied Programme.