Junior cert results out today

More than 1,000 students who earlier this year sat the Junior Cert exams in Offaly will today (Wednesday) find out their exam results.

Nationwide just over 60,000 students - 29,277 female and 31,050 male - are in line to get results later today. In Offaly a total of 526 females sat the exams, while 537 males did the same.

ASTI president Philip Irwin sent a message of congratulations to students expecting results today, as well as to teachers and parents involved in this year’s Junior Cert exams.

“Regardless of individual grades, this is an important milestone for all students,” he said. “Every student has a unique set of talents, abilities, skills and interests and it is this uniqueness that we should celebrate today.”

Mr Irwin also used the opportunity to highlight that the funding crisis in second-level education must be addressed if reform of the junior cycle is to be successful.

It’s being reported that Junior Cert results as a whole show an increased uptake at higher level maths, something Minister for Research, Innovation and Skills Damien English has welcomed.

“A good base in mathematics is essential for successful engagement with the sciences and with life,” he said, adding that it is “heartening” that well over half of the Junior Cert cohort are now sitting the higher level maths paper.

Fifty-four percent of students sat the higher level paper this year, it’s reported, up from 52 per cent last year.