Northern Ireland's A-level students set new records

Northern Ireland's A-level students have again outperformed their peers in England and Wales after receiving their results this morning.

The number of A-grade students saw a slight rise with 28.5% of students achieving top marks - almost 7% ahead of the equivalent national figure of 21.6%.

The overall pass rate is also up, with 97.2% of all entries achieving an A–E grade as compared to 96.4% in 2002.

Commenting on the figures, Chief Executive of the Council for the Curriculum, Examinations and Assessment (CCEA), Gavin Boyd, said: "This is an excellent performance by our students and one about which all in the community can be rightly proud.

"Today’s results reflect the fact that not only do our young people work very hard but they are now better prepared, better supported and better resourced than ever before. Our pupils also benefit greatly from a focused and professional teaching force who truly are top of the class."

Once again girls continue to outperform boys across the majority of subjects with girls 4% ahead in the numbers achieving the top grade. The good news for boys is that the gap in the overall pass rate has closed once more with just 0.6% separating the sexes in the numbers achieving grades A–E. Northern Ireland boys and girls also outperform both sexes in England and Wales.

The figures released by CCEA also show that A-levels are proving more popular than ever with a record 28,650 entries across all subjects.

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