In a significant boost for the education system, Irish students have produced highly impressive results in a major new international survey of reading, maths and scientific ability carried out by the OECD among 15-year-olds.
The Republic is placed in the top five for reading ability, the second-best performance in the whole of Europe, according to the survey of over 250,000 students in 32 industrialised countries.
The findings will come as a major boost to the Government, which was embarrassed by findings in previous international literacy and skills surveys.
The results have been produced despite a poor level of spending on education by the Republic which is noted in the survey.
However, the Republic appears to get better value for money from its spending because its results were far better than many states which spent more, for example, Germany.
The survey points out that Irish students are forced to work extremely hard.
On average they do almost 51/2 hours of English, maths and science homework a week, which is among the highest in the OECD.
What may also boost their scores is the number of extra classes or "grinds" taken outside school. According to the report Irish pupils were above the OECD average in this area, with about 40 per cent getting private tuition or help with study skills.
The Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) survey, which was carried out last year, is one of the most wide- ranging investigations into education standards in the world. Poor figures for German pupils have already prompted a bout of self-examination among policy-makers and politicians there.
Based on the survey's findings Irish pupils appear to be particularly strong using and understanding English. The OECD survey assessed students on their ability to retrieve, interpret and evaluate information. This was done using a range of written texts, including a short story, a letter and information in a diagram.
Performance in this test was broken into six levels, with 14 per cent of Irish students reaching the highest level. The OECD said this group was capable of "completing sophisticated reading tasks" not easily done by most teenagers.
To the relief of the Government, the number of Irish students with serious literacy problems was about 3 per cent, significantly better than most of the economies surveyed.
The performance in maths was not as strong, with the Republic hovering just above the OECD average. The PISA survey looked at maths and how it is used in ordinary life.
In line with other sections of the survey, Asian economies such as Japan and Korea dominated the maths statistics along with New Zealand, Finland and Canada.
In relation to "science literacy" the average OECD score was 500 points, with the Republic's students getting just over 510, leaving them in ninth position. This was ahead of the United States, Spain, Germany, Italy, Sweden and France and according to the survey was "significantly above" the OECD average.
Once more the top two positions were taken by Korea and Japan, although Britain was strongly placed in this section.
The PISA survey also contains a wealth of other information on the school system in the Republic and how teachers and pupils interact with it. Teachers will be happy with the results, with pupils and principals praising their commitment and energy.
In a confirmation of domestic research, the OECD found Irish girls outperforming boys in reading skills and science, although boys were still ahead in maths.