Good results despite bigger class sizes

IRELAND has some of the most able students in the EU, despite having bigger class sizes and above average student-to-teacher ratio, the CSO report reveals.

Girls in Ireland performed much better than boys in reading literacy tests in 2003 with an average score of 530 for females compared to 501 for males.

These scores combined to give Ireland the second highest reading literacy for 15-year-old students among EU countries.