The most interesting thing about the Leaving Certificate statistics published this morning is less about the results, which are not dramatically different from the past two years, but the increases in the number of students taking some subjects, particularly the core subjects of mathematics and Irish.
At higher-level maths, the numbers have gone up by 16.6 per cent since last year, when the introduction of transition year caused a temporary fall in numbers, and by 10 per cent since 1995.
In the four years since the new mathematics syllabus was introduced, the numbers taking higher level maths have gone up by over 60 per cent.
Mr Sean Ashe of the Irish Mathematics Teachers Association said yesterday this showed the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment course committee had "got the syllabus right".
He said the NCCA had evaluated the less-successful higher level course at Junior Certificate level in the light of this success, and a new Junior Cert syllabus was waiting to be introduced. He put the growing numbers down to more and better in-service training and to the higher profile maths-orientated subjects have had in the jobs market in recent years.
As has become usual, the number of As (over 85 per cent) in maths is among the highest of any subject, with 15.5 per cent getting this grade. At the other end of the scale, the numbers failing at ordinary level continue to be high, at 12.5 per cent, although the foundation level course has taken away weaker pupils and reduced this from an early-1990s figure of more than 20 per cent.
The modest numbers now taking applied mathematics have risen significantly, by over 20 per cent to nearly 1,500. Unsurprisingly, the very motivated and clever students who take this course are also the top performers, with over 25 per cent of them gaining A grades. More surprisingly, the numbers taking higher-level Irish and gaining high grades have both risen, giving hope that the long-term decline in the subject may be bottoming out.
Some 2,700 more students took the higher-level exam than last year, with its transition year blip, and 900 more than in 1995. The numbers who gained A grades at higher level have increased by nearly 1 per cent compared to last year and are higher than the proportion getting A in English.
The foundation-level Irish course for weaker students, which was examined for the second time this year, also marked up a number of high grades. Some 3.1 per cent of foundation level students got As, 31.5 per cent got Bs (over 70 per cent) and 43 per got Cs (over 55 per cent), while only 2.7 per cent failed (under 40 per cent).
By contrast, 14 per cent of ordinary level students failed, appearing to indicate that even more should switch to foundation level.
The former president of Comhar na Muinteori Gaeilge, Ms Treasa Ni Chonaola, who teaches at St Michael's College, Balls bridge, Dublin, found the Irish results "very helpful and hopeful. I hope it has halted the decline in those taking honours Irish." She said the new syllabus in Leaving Certificate Irish appeared to have made the course "more accessible and appealing to students".
In honours English, which is often considered the most difficult of the three core subjects, the number gaining A and B grades is slightly down on last year.
Results here have been consistent over the past two years, with around 40 per cent of students getting Cs and a third getting Ds (over 40 per cent).
The most bitterly disappointed students will be that 3.2 per cent, around 1,000 young people, who failed honours English. They will be unlikely to get into the vast majority of third-level courses, and will have to repeat.
At ordinary level, which reflects the ability of the average student, 6.9 per cent failed English. Ms Sheila Parsons, an ASTI subject representative who teaches at Holy Faith-De La Salle College in Skerries, Co Dublin, said this indicated that classes at this level were still too large and under-resourced compared to more technical subjects.
She wondered if it was time to examine the usefulness of a foundation course in English, the only core subject which does not have one.
Grades in higher-level modern languages were either the same as in 1996, as in German, or slightly up, as in French. However, the numbers getting A to C grades at ordinary level went up from just over 51 per cent to nearly 58 per cent. There was a disparity between the languages when it came to A grades at higher level, with 7.4 per cent in French, 10 per cent in German, 10.5 per cent in Spanish and. from a tiny base, 27.7 per cent in Italian.
Mr John Bean of the French Teachers Association, who teaches at Hartstown Community School, Clonsilla, Dublin, expressed some concern that the published figures showed it was easier to get high grades in maths and science subjects than in languages. He said about 17,500 students taking French at higher level got only 1,300 As, while 11,000 students taking maths got 1,700 As.
In the smaller subjects, there was something of a first in that 4.9 per cent and 14.5 per cent of students in the two music syllabuses. traditionally a subject in which high marks are rare, received As. Another surprise was the 40 per cent failure rate, out of 10 pupils, in ordinary level Latin, while six of the eight students who took Arabic at ordinary level also failed it.