A level passes in foreign languages, including the Irish language
Published 5 October 2010
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- Date requested: 16 September 2010
- Publish date: 05 October 2010
- Updated: 26 April 2012
1. Request
Can the Department provide the following information:
a) the number of students who sat A levels
b) the pass rate of these students
c) the number of students who took a foreign language at A level
d) the pass rate of these students
e) the number of students who studied the Irish language at A level
f) the number of these students who are located in Northern Ireland, England, Wales and Scotland
g) the pass rate of students who studied the Irish language at A level
h) the pass rate of students who studied the Irish language at A level in Northern Ireland, England, Scotland and Wales.
2. Release
The Joint Council for Qualifications (JCQ) released the majority of the information when students received their A level results in August. The published information can be downloaded from the JCQ website.
2.1 In summary
Answer to point (a)
There were 853,933 individual A level entries in the UK (England, Wales and Northern Ireland) in summer 2010. The Department does not yet know what that equates to in terms of the number of individual students but it was around 260,000 aged 16 to 18 in England in 2009.
Answer to point (b)
The pass rate for all A levels was 97.6%.
Answer to points (c) and (d)
Foreign languages are split into:
- French - 13,850 entries with a pass rate of 99.1%
- German - 5548 entries with a pass rate of 99.0%
- Spanish - 7629 entries with a pass rate of 98.7%
- Other foreign languages - 7370 entries with a pass rate of 97.6%.
Answer to point (e)
There were 352 entries in Irish.
Answer to point (f)
All entries in Irish were in Northern Ireland.
Answer to points (g) and (h)
The pass rate in Irish was 98.6%.