Students from Cork are the highest performers in the Leaving Cert but those from the Border counties do less well, according to figures prepared for the Higher Education Authority (HEA), writes Seán Flynn, Education Editor.
The figures show Cork students outperforming all other counties by a wide margin. All of the other top-performing counties are urban centres - Dublin, Limerick and Kilkenny.
However, the picture is much less encouraging for the Border counties. Eight of the bottom 10 performing counties are in the Border region, including Louth and Donegal.
The ground-breaking figures are based on an analysis of the Leaving Cert results of 36,000 students who entered higher education colleges in 2004.
The figures, compiled by the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) for the HEA, track the number of students from each county who secured five or more grade C3 or higher (ie "honours") in five higher-level subjects. This is the category of students eligible to enter honours or Level 8 degree programmes on entry to third level. Some 52 per cent of Leaving Cert students from Cork achieved this level compared to just 29 per cent in Louth.
Dublin has the second-highest level of top performers with 46 per cent gaining five higher level Grade Cs or more, followed closely by Limerick and Kilkenny.
Other high-performing counties include Clare, Wicklow, Waterford, Kildare, Galway, Tipperary and Kerry. In Laois, some 40 per cent secured five honours, the national average, but several counties performed well below this - including Louth, Donegal, Leitrim, Sligo and Roscommon.
The figures were first published as part of a 200-plus page report Who went to College? in a HEA/ESRI survey earlier this year, but they have received scant attention until now.
The State Exams Commission refuses to give county-by-county analysis of Leaving Cert results to the media. Last week a spokesperson told The Irish Times that release of the figures could assist the compilation of school league tables, which are banned under the Education Act. The figures show how students in large urban centres tend to outperform those in rural and less-developed settings. The high-performing counties are also those with a large number of fee-paying schools and grind schools.
Who does best? The top ten.
1. Cork 2. Dublin 3. Limerick 4. Kilkenny 5. Clare 6. Wicklow 7. Waterford 8. Kildare 9. Galway 10. Tipperary