Over 57,000 students across the State received their Leaving Cert results today.
Minister for Education Batt O’Keeffe this morning congratulated students on their results and told them to be confident in the future. He also called on them to consider courses in the field of science, technology and engineering.
"Students across the country getting their results today should be proud of their achievements in the Leaving Certificate examinations and embrace the future with confidence and a sense of mission," Mr O'Keeffe said in a statement.
"Overall, I’m pleased to see that the results are broadly in line with previous years, including English where the second paper had to be rescheduled."
One of the students learning of their results this morning was Rory Crotty from the Christian Brothers College, Sidney Hill in Cork City, who received nine A1s in his Leaving Cert, the highest result in the State.
Today's results show only 16 per cent of students took honours maths. Just 10 per cent of students took higher level chemistry, while just 8 per cent took higher level physics. However, the number failing maths at all three exam levels fell to 8 per cent. In all, over 4,500 students failed higher, ordinary, and foundation level maths.
The overall number sitting the examinations is up by 3.3 per cent this year to 57,455 candidates.
Some 39,112 (68 per cent per cent) candidates followed the ordinary and honours papers, another 15,084 (26.3 per cent) sat the Leaving Certificate vocational programme, while 3,259 candidates (5.7 per cent) took the Leaving Certificate applied programme and built up credits over the last two years.
Of those getting results today, 50,883 are school-leavers, 4,361 are external candidates and 2,211 are repeat candidates. The first round of CAO offers will be made next Monday.
Richard Langford, chairman of the State Examinations Commission, also congratulated all the candidates on their results.
“The Leaving Certificate examination is a demanding test requiring years of hard work and dedication from candidates and support and encouragement from those around them,” he said.
The Association of Secondary Teachers in Ireland (Asti) said that now was a time for calm reflection. “While the Leaving Cert represents a significant milestone in a young person’s life, it is not everything and it is important that you take the time to positively explore all your options over the coming weeks,” said Asti president Joe Moran.
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