Northern Ireland Office

Secretary of State Peter Hain MP today congratulated young people across Northern Ireland on this year’s examination results.

Mr Hain said: “Today’s GCSE results, coming on top of last week’s excellent A and AS Level results, show that Northern Ireland has the talent needed to succeed on the global stage.

“These results are the product of years of hard work by pupils and teachers alike. I am determined that all pupils and teachers get the support they need to continue achieving well, and I want to ensure that no child going through Northern Ireland’s education system is underachieving.

“That is why I have committed record levels of investment to the education system, and I have made sure money goes directly to the classroom so teachers and pupils get the benefit.

“These results represent success across the board in Northern Ireland’s education system. The new arrangements for post primary education will build on this success, raising standards for every child. The revised curriculum will give pupils a greater choice of academic and vocational qualifications, harnessing talents to produce the skills needed for the 21st century economy.”

GCSE A*-C grades were achieved by 71.7% of candidates, with 7.8% being awarded the top grade A*. This is respectively 0.7% and 0.3% more than last year, demonstrating that high standards have, yet again, been maintained.  

Northern Ireland boys have slightly reduced the gap in achievement at all but the top A* grade. However, girls continue to outperform boys both locally and nationally. More candidates here have achieved the top A* and A*-C grades than their counterparts in England and Wales. There has also been encouraging progress in achievement in Applied GCSEs.

Concluding, Mr Hain said: “I wish our young people every success for the future, whether they decide to continue in education, training or to enter employment.”  

Financial support is available to those wishing to continue in education through the Educational Maintenance Allowance , as well as the Training Allowances available for Jobskills.

Anyone seeking information and advice on any issues relating to their exam results should contact their school or college or the CCEA helpline on 028 9026 1260 or via email . For those who did better or less well than expected, information, advice and guidance on what to do next is available from the Careers Service at 028 9044 1787 or on the Career Service website

Notes to Editors

1. All available statistics are provisional and are subject to appeals and re-marks.
2. Media queries to: Press Office, Department of Education, Tel 028 9127 9207.

Table 1:  2006 GCSE Full Course results analysis (2005 figures in brackets)

• In NI, there were increases on 2005’s results of 0.3 percentage points at A* and 0.3 percentage points at A*-A, compared to 0.7 and 0.7 nationally. NI remains ahead of the national figures by 1.5% at A* and 5.2% at A*-A (although this has fallen slightly by 0.1 and 0.4 percentage points respectively).
• At A*-C, there was an increase of 0.7 percentage points on 2005’s results, compared to 1.2 nationally. NI remains ahead of the national figure by 9.3%.
• There was a 0.1 percentage point decrease at A*-G, compared to a 0.3 percentage point increase nationally. NI has now fallen 0.2% behind the national figure.

Table 2: 2006 GCSE Results Gender Breakdown (2005 figures in brackets)

• Girls are ahead of boys by 3.6% at A* and 7.7% at A*-A, compared with 2% and 5.4% nationally. The gap has increased at A* by 0.2 percentage points but narrowed by 0.1 percentage points at A*-A. Both NI boys and girls remain ahead of their peers nationally.
• At A*-C, the gap has decreased by 1.8 percentage points to 7.1%. Nationally, the gap has narrowed by 0.5 percentage points to 8.2%. NI boys and girls remain ahead of their peers nationally.
• At A*-G, boys have closed the gap by 0.3 percentage points to 0.8%, when nationally the gender gap has increased by 0.2 percentage points to 0.7%. NI boys and girls are slightly behind their peers nationally.