Exam results - Equality the key to school reform

This year’s Leaving Certificate results are broadly in line with previous years. There was a slight increase in the number of students sitting science subjects.

Even though the downward trend of previous years has been arrested and even slightly reversed in the past two years, the numbers taking chemistry and physics are still very low.

But this can be seen in a more positive light against the backdrop of a decrease in the number of students taking science subjects throughout most of the rest of Europe. Minister for Education Noel Dempsey believes that the new syllabus for the science subjects will be taken up by more students, because there has been a concerted effort to make them more interesting.