GCSE results in Northern Ireland showed an improvement on last year, figures released yesterday show.
According to statistics from the Council for Curriculum, Examinations and Assessment (CCEA), 7.1 per cent of pupils in the North achieved the top A (A star) grade, an increase of 0.2 per cent on last year.
Girls continue to outperform boys at A (A star) by 3.6 per cent and A (A star) to A grades by 7.9 per cent.
The CCEA also confirmed that there was a small increase in the number gaining A (A star) to C, rising from 69 per cent last year to 69.4 per cent.
CCEA chief executive Mr Gavin Boyd said Northern Ireland students "are to be congratulated on their effort over the past two years. We are all extremely proud of their achievements."
The first set of results for Northern Ireland students taking the new applied GCSEs showed that 1.4 per cent received A (A star) grades, with 48.2 per cent attaining A (A star) to C grades.
The applied GCSEs are more vocationally based and are the equivalent of two GCSEs.
With only 1,547 entries, Mr Boyd said: "We are still very much in the early days of applied GCSEs. Entry numbers are quite small and it is difficult to identify any pattern or theme in performances."
The head of education services with the CCEA, Mr Alastair Walker, said the good results were a reflection of teaching standards in Northern Ireland.
"Though the results for the national figures don't come through until later in the week, we can confidently expect the results here will be better this year again. It has been the same pattern for a long time and I think it reflects the very high quality of teaching in Northern Ireland.
"It reflects the very strong effort that people put into education and the esteem that education has in the community." - (PA)