Junior Certificate 1999 – Trainee Results

Appendix I details the results of the trainees in each subject and level. Comparisons between grades in the different subjects need to be treated cautiously due to the wide range in sample sizes completing examinations in each subject and level. However when loosely comparing the grade results of the more popular subjects (sample size > 45), figure I shows the percentage of students achieving a grade 'A' regardless of level. Figure II then shows the percentage of trainees sitting each subject and achieving either an 'A' grade or a 'B' grade. Figure III shows the percentage of students sitting each subject who achieved either an 'A', 'B' or 'C' grade in the Junior Cert examination for that subject. Then finally figure IV shows the percentage of students who achieved a pass in each subject, broken down by grade. All percentages in the following figures are based on the number of papers where a grade/ result was indicated (i.e. not always on the number who took each paper as in Appendix I).

Figure I: Percentage of Trainees Achieving an 'A' Grade in Junior Cert Exams 1999 (regardless of level)

From Figure I, it is clear that in 1999, the percentage of trainees sitting the Junior Certificate who achieved a grade A (regardless of level), was highest in Art, Craft and Design (18%), followed closely by English (16%) and then Maths (14%) followed closely by Materials Technology (13%). Based on the results of 1998 (Ryan,1999:9) the ranking was slightly different – English (17%) followed by Art, Craft and Design (16%), then Maths (13%) and Materials Technology(10%). However the figures are not significantly different and the overall trend remains the same. Again mirroring the results in 1998, the subject with the lowest percentage of A grades was Home Economics – only 5% of trainees who sat the Home Economics paper achieved an A grade, compared with 18% of those who sat the Art, Craft and Design papers and 16% of those who sat the English papers.

Figure II: Percentage of Trainees who Achieved an 'A' or a 'B' Grade– Junior Cert 1999

Figure II shows the highest 'scoring' trainees in each subject using a grade B as the cut off point. The picture has changed somewhat here with the highest percentage of A and B grades in the Materials Technology papers. This trend again mirrors that based on the results of 1998 (Ryan, 1999: 10) Nearly two thirds of those who sat the Materials Technology papers in 1999 achieved either an A or a B, in 1998 over half those who sat a paper in Materials Technology achieved the same level of grade (again these results are regardless of levels of papers). The Maths papers have the next highest percentage of trainees achieving A or B grades (47% slightly higher than the results of 1998 41%) followed closely by English (45% again slightly higher than last year) and then Art Craft and Design and Home Economics (38% of those who sat these subjects got either an A or a B grade). Interestingly, the percentage of As and Bs has dropped slightly for papers in Art, Craft and Design (from 44% to 38%). The percentage of As and Bs has increased in the Home Economics papers (from 31% in 1998 to 38% in 1999) (Ryan, 1999: 10).

Figure III: Percentage of Trainees who Achieved a 'C' Grade or Higher in each subject

Figure III looks at the percentage of trainees who sat each subject in 1999 and achieved either an A, B or C grade in the examination. It shows clearly that the vast majority of those who sat the Materials Technology (89%), the Home Economics (89%) and the Art, Craft and Design papers (88%) achieved at least a grade C. Again this success in the practically oriented subjects follows the trend of the 1998 results where trainees achieved similar grades in Art, Craft and Design (95% of trainees achieved a C grade or higher) Materials Technology papers (90% achieved a grade C or higher). Interestingly, the percentage of grades higher than a C grade for the Home Economics papers has increased from 61% in 1998 to 89% in 1999 (Ryan, 1999:10). Three quarters of those who sat an English paper achieved a grade C or higher (75%) and almost the same percentage achieved C or higher in Maths (73%). The percentages for English and Maths are very similar to the results in 1998 (Ryan, 1999:10).

Figure IV: Percentage of Trainees who Achieved a Pass Grade or Higher in Each Subject

Finally Figure IV looks at the percentage of trainees who sat each subject who achieved pass level or higher i.e. those who achieved grades A,B,C or D. Again the front running subjects are the practically oriented Materials Technology (100% pass rate) and Art, Craft and Design (98% pass rate). Every trainee from the sample (excluding those who did not supply any result) who sat the Junior Certificate examination in Materials Technology in 1999 passed. The results in Materials Technology were the same in 1998 – therefore, among the YOUTHREACH, CTW and STTC trainees there was a failure rate of zero in Materials Technology in both 1998 and 1999. This high pass rate compares favourably with the Department of Education and Science figures on the Materials Technology Junior Certificate results based on all examination candidates in 1998 (Department of Education and Science, 1999) where there was a 4.5% failure rate.

The failure rate in Home Economics, another practically oriented subject, was only 3% - 97% of those who sat a paper in Home Economics achieved a pass grade or higher, an improvement on the 13% failure rate in 1998 (Ryan, 1999: 12). The failure rate in 1999 for English was only 5%, therefore 95% of the students who sat a paper in English achieved at least pass level (identical to 1998 rate). 92% of those who sat papers in Mathematics achieved a grade D or higher (1998 rate 93%).