Mayo Junior Cert students broadly happy with results

Mayo Junior Cert students broadly happy with results


Rowan Gallagher

1,678 students in Mayo got their  Junior Certificate Exam results last week with maths again showing to be a problem subject for many students. Only 45 per cent of Junior Certificate students took the higher level maths paper and, in the ordinary level paper, one in 12 failed.
More than half the 56,000 students who sat the exams did maths at ordinary level, with 7.4 per cent failing, unchanged from last year
Some 45 per cent of students took higher level maths in the exams, but only 14 per cent of students sat higher level maths in the 2010 Leaving Certificate. Minister Dara Calleary congratulated all the students who received their results last week.
“All the students should be congratulated on their hard work and I hope that most will be happy with the results they received. The results mark the culmination of many hours of effort put in by the students, their teachers and their families and it is a proud day for everyone involved,” Minister Calleary said.
The Chairman of the State Examinations Commission (SEC), Mr. Richard Langford, sent his congratulations to all of the students receiving results last week and to their parents and teachers. The overall numbers sitting the examination has increased by one per cent on last year and the proportion of candidates who are re-entrants to education has fallen slightly from 2.3 per cent of the cohort in 2009 to two per cent in 2010.   
This year 15 students scored 12 As or more in higher-level subjects, while a further 120 secured 11 As.
High failure rates in foreign languages were seen this year, with another worrying aspect being the high failure rates in a range of practical subjects at ordinary level, including metalwork (15 per cent), technical graphics (nine per cent) and technology (nine per cent).
More than 11 per cent of students failed both French and Spanish at ordinary level while six per cent of students failed French at higher level.
Students will be able to access their results online at www.examinations.ie, quoting their personal identification number and examination number.