Almost a third of Northern Ireland students achieve top A-Level grades

Northern Ireland is "punching above its weight," Education Minister Paul Givan said after thousands received A-Levels results on Thursday.

Almost a third of the 26,000 students receiving their results got the top A/A* grades.

The number of A and A* grades in Northern Ireland has dropped since 2023, but education experts said this was to be expected given how results were handled during and after the Coronavirus pandemic.

This year marked the completion of the transition away from measures introduced during the pandemic. Examinations board CCEA indicated results have stablilised, returning to pre-pandemic levels.

Pupils in Northern Ireland still outperformed their peers elsewhere in the UK with 27.8% getting A/A*s in England and Wales.

During a visit to Belfast High School on Thursday morning, Stormont Education Minister, Paul Givan, said he is delighted results in Northern Ireland “continue to outperform other parts of the UK”.

Mr Givan praised pupils' hard work and commended the efforts of teachers and parents.

Stormont Economy Minister Conor Murphy has encouraged those receiving exam results, and their parents, to access his department’s careers service for free help and advice.

While the wait is over for B-Tech, AS and A-Level students, those awaiting GCSE grades will receive their results on Thursday, 22 August.

A-Level results breakdown

This year there were 32,873 A-level entries in Northern Ireland.

Some 8.2% of students achieved an A* (compared with 8% in 2019), 30.3% achieved A* – A grades (29.4% in 2019) and overall 98.5% of students in Northern Ireland achieved A*- E grade (98.4% in 2019).

Mathematics was the most popular subject accounting for 9.6% of entries.

It was followed by biology (8.7%), health and social care (7.9%), business studies (7%), history (6.4%), chemistry (5.9%), geography (5.1%), English literature 4.8%), religious studies (4.1%) and physics (3.9%).

Meanwhile, AS-level entries were up from 39,336 in 2023 to 41,180 this year.

In those results, some 26.7% of students achieved grade A (26.4% in 2019) and overall 96.4% achieved A-E grade (95.7% in 2019).

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