Subjects examined in the Junior Certificate 1999

Junior Certificate Results were supplied for 233 students – 116 Male and 117 female. Based on the results supplied, students sitting the junior certificate are more likely to be Male in both VEC YOUTHREACH CENTRES (students 56% and 44% female) and in Community Training Workshops (59% male and 41% female), but more likely to be female in Senior Traveller Training Workshops (7% male and 93% female).

The modal number of subjects taken in the Junior Certificate examination is one, with nearly one third (32%) of the trainees taking this number of subjects. A further 25% took two subjects only, 12% took either five subjects or three subjects, 6% took four subjects or six subjects, 3% took seven or eight and 1% (2 students) took nine subjects. Therefore over half of the trainees took only one or two subjects in the 1999 Junior Certificate (57%), compared with 49% taking the same number of subjects in 1998 (Ryan, 1999:7).

Table 1.4.1: Number of Trainees Examined in each Subject – Junior Certificate 1999
 

*This student received instruction in the local school

Again in agreement with the most popular subjects provided by centres and last years trends, the most popular subjects for trainees to take were English and Maths. Table 1.4.1 above, shows the percentage of trainees who took each subject. The same patterns are evident here as in the provision of subjects by centres. 72% of trainees who sat the Junior Certificate in 1999, were examined in either English or Maths (figure for 1998 also 72%). The leaning toward practical subjects is more evident here than in the subject provision (Home Economics, Art, Craft and Design, Materials Technology, Typewriting etc.); there is a much higher ranking of take up for subjects such as Home Economics and Technical Graphics (24% and 10% respectively), though they did not necessarily appear that high in the ranking for provision of subjects. There is a low take up of languages other than English, with 3% sitting Irish or Spanish and only 1% the French exam. Less than half a percentage point (1 student) sat either German or Italian. However, since the German, Italian or Spanish were provided in the previous it may take a while before they become more popular even within the individual centres that are providing them.

Table 1.4.2 below shows the percentage of trainees at each level of paper for each subject (subjects with a sample greater than 34) in the Junior Certificate in 1999.

Table 1.4.2: Percentage of Trainees at each Level of Paper for Junior Certificate Subjects

Taking account of the all the papers sat by each of the 233 Trainees in the 1999 Junior Certificate examination, 8% of papers were taken at higher level (small increase on the figure of 1998 results which was 5%). Therefore as the table shows, trainees are more likely to take the higher paper in Materials Technology than in any other subject analysed here (samples for other subjects are too small to give a reliable indication of likelihood to take paper at such a level). A higher than average number also take the higher level paper in Art, Craft and Design (12.5% at higher level) or in Home Economics (13%). These figures again show the leaning toward practical subjects at higher level.

92% of papers taken in the 1999 examination were at either ordinary or foundation level (foundation level available in English, Irish and Mathematics). Looking at the two main core subjects English and Maths (sample sitting the Irish exam was too small for this analysis), 2% of Junior Certificate examinations in these two subjects core subjects are taken at higher level, 25% at ordinary level and 72% at foundation level. When comparing the results for both English and Maths to this combined figure, trainees were more likely to sit the ordinary level paper in English than in Mathematics where a larger majority sat the foundation level paper (see table 1.4.2 above).