Northern Ireland pupils continue to perform at GCSE level

Education Minister Peter Weir visits Methodist College, Belfast where pupils celebrate their GCSE results. Credit: Michael Cooper

Northern Ireland pupils continue to perform well in their GCSEs as demonstrated by small rises across the grades this year.

The proportion of entries awarded A* - C grades has risen by 0.4% this year to 79.1%.

Entries achieving A* - A have improved 0.5 percentage points to 29.1%, and entries achieving the top A* grade now sit at 9.3%, a slight rise of 0.3 percentage points on 2015.

The figures have been released by the Joint Council for Qualifications (JCQCIC) on Thursday.

Across the UK the proportion of candidates getting a C grade or above has actually fallen to the lowest level for almost 10 years.

Those candidates achieving A* to C declined by 2.1% to 66.9%.

  • In GCSE English, A* - C:performance rose by two per cent to 77.8% of entries in 2016.- In Mathematics, A* - C:** performance fell by 1.7% to 64.9% of entries. At age 16 the performance was stable at 68.4%, with a small decline of 0.2 percentage points compared to 2015.

  • Sciences: A* - C performance in Biology rising 0.6 percentage points to 92.2% of entries, Chemistry up 0.1 percentage points to 93.6 of entries, and Physics up 0.3 percentage points to 95.9% of entries.

Females continue to perform better than males in GCSE examinations, with the gap at A* to C widening marginally by 0.5% to 7.6%.

Just under 83% of girls sitting GCSEs gained A* - C grades, up 0.7% on last year. Of those boys sitting their exams, just over 75% gained A* - C grades, an improvement of 0.2%.

The total number of entries in GCSE examinations in Northern Ireland fell from 171,325 in 2015 to 161,975 in 2016, a drop of 5.5%. The entry decline was anticipated, given the 5% drop in pupil numbers.

Entries for STEM subjects (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) have grown by 0.3% in Northern Ireland. This growth means STEM subjects here account for close to one third (31.9%) of all GCSE entries.

The increase in STEM entries is being driven by Biology (up 3.4%), Chemistry (up 1.7%) and Computing (up 106%). There were decreases in the percentage of the overall entry taking Design and Technology (down 7.7%), ICT (down 4.6%) and Physics (down 3%).

Languages entries have declined by 3.7% in Northern Ireland. French entries declined by 6.4%, Spanish entries declined by 3.8% and Irish entries decreased by 4%. German increased by 11.3%.