THE Northern Ireland Industrial Development Board has agreed to withdraw a factsheet on education it sends out to promote the North as a location for investors.

It claims 99 per cent of Northern Ireland 16-year-olds in 1993-94 entered higher education, but the actual figure was zero because students at that age are not qualified to begin degree courses.

Figures from the Department of Education show that 47 per cent of 16-year-old (year 12) leavers went on to further education in that year, half to employment or training and a small number was as not accounted for.

Even among 18-year-old leavers (year 14), only 26 went on to higher education, and 36 per cent to further education.

"Obviously that graph is wrong," admitted the IDB. "It should be the percentage of 16-year-olds participating in school or further education in 1993-94."

But that is not the only error in the table, which claims that the North's participation rate of 99 per cent compares with 87 per cent in Scotland, 77 per cent in England and 66 per cent in Wales.

Regional Trends, the annual set of statistics from which the IDB took the table, explicitly warns that the Northern Ireland figure is not comparable with the other countries because it includes some element of double counting.

"That will be put right when we revise it," the IDB spokesperson added. "It will not be sent out as it is. We update the leaflet every six months or so but we will speed up the process."