Educational attainment
We have examined a range of data sources to show the differences in education across equality groups in Northern Ireland.
We sought to understand areas of underachievement and identify inequalities.
The information shows that:
- girls perform better than boys
- Catholics perform better than protestants
- pupils who receive free school meals have lower levels of attainment
- pupils with special education needs have lower levels of attainment
- current newcomers and ethnic minorities have lower levels of attainment.
- former newcomers have high levels of educational achievement
School leavers and qualifications
The school leavers Survey 2021 from the Department of Education breaks down the GCSE and A-level attainment of pupils in Northern Ireland across some equality groups.
Over three-quarters (78%) of school leavers obtained at least five GCSEs graded A* to C. Just over half (53%) achieved three A-levels.
These can be broken down further by equality areas:
Gender comparison in qualifications
For GCSE's, 82% of girls achieved five GCSE's (including English and maths), compared to 73% of boys.
For A levels, 63% of girls achieved three A-levels, compared to 43% of boys.
Religious background comparison in qualifications
For GCSE's, 80% of Catholics achieved five GCSE's (including English and maths), compared to 76% of protestants.
For A-levels, 57% of Catholics achieved 3 A-levels, compared to 49% of protestants.
Free school meals comparison in qualifications
For GCSE's, 84% of pupils not entitled to free school meals achieved 5 GCSE's (including English and maths), compared to 60% of pupils who are entitled to free school meals.
For A-levels, 60% of pupils not entitled to free school meals achieved 3 A-levels, compared to 33% of pupils who are entitled to free school meals.
Special Educational Needs (SEN) comparison in qualifications
For GCSE's, 84% of pupils without SEN achieved 5 GCSE's (including English and maths). This is compared to 46% for those with SEN stage 1-2 and 36% for SEN stage 3.
For A-levels, 58% of pupils without SEN achieved 3 A-levels. This is compared to 25% for those with SEN stage 1-2 and 17% for SEN stage 3
.
Progression to higher education
Almost half 48% of all school leavers moved on to higher education. The highest levels of pupils going on to higher education are girls at 56%, Catholics at 50% and pupils from an ethnic minority background at 52%.
Pupils moving on to institutions of higher education after leaving school with SEN are 21% for SEN Stages 1-2, and 16% for SEN Stage 3.
Educational achievement of current and former newcomers
33% of current newcomers achieved 5 GCSE’s or more.
Former newcomers (those who have achieved a certain level of English language skills) overperformed with 80% achieving 5 GCSEs or more compared to non-newcomers were at 78% achieving 5 GCSEs.
53% of current newcomer pupils moved to institutions of further education against an average of 27%.
Data sources and limitations
The data sources for the education strand of our Measuring Equality Framework were:
Recommendations to increase educational attainment
The insights from this data have formed our recommendations to government to improve education in Northern Ireland. They include calls to
improve access to quality education for pupils with SEN.
Further information
The report goes into further detail on the combined impact of multiple equality grounds and other areas of analysis including support, bullying and sharing in education.