Exam results - Courses must be appealing

As usual there seem to be mixed messages from the latest Leaving Certificate results. The decline in the number taking the higher-level paper in mathematics is a continuing worry. Of the 52,290 who sat maths, just 16% took the higher paper. That was down from 17% in 2008.

But there were positive results among the 1,818 students who sat the examination in the first revised maths programme at 24 schools. In this programme the percentage that chose the higher-level paper rose to 18.5%.

Although the failure level in ordinary maths fell below 10% for the first time in the past decade, there are still concerns that 3,714 students failed to achieve a D grade or better, thus limiting their chances of entry to a third-level course.