More students completing Leaving than ever before

THE amount of students completing the Leaving Cert is at its highest level ever, a new report has revealed.

Of the 59,221 students who started secondary school in 2010, 91.2% sat their Leaving in 2015 or 2016 – the highest completion figure in State history.

Minister for Education Richard Bruton will publish a report on school retention rates today. It will show the gap in Leaving Cert retention between DEIS (Delivering Equality of opportunity In Schools) scheme and non-DEIS schools has nearly halved since 2001.

‘The gap in retention rates to the Leaving Certificate between DEIS and non-DEIS continues to narrow, almost halving from 15.8% for the 2001 cohort to 8.5% for the 2010 cohort,’ Minister Bruton said.

The retention rate in DEIS schools has improved by 1.7 percentage points – 84.4% of those who entered DEIS schools in 2010 sat their Leaving Cert, compared to 82.7% of the 2009 cohort, according to the report.

The percentage of 20- to 24-yearolds whose highest level of education is at least upper secondary is the second best among the 28 European countries at 94%.

Voluntary secondary schools continue to have the highest retention rate to Leaving Certificate at 92.7%; community and comprehensive schools were next at 90.6% – followed by vocational schools at 88.3%.

Early leavers from education and training, overall, is at 6.3% – down by over 40% from 10.8% in 2011, improving Ireland’s ranking by seven places to seventh in Europe.