From Leaving CertiFiCate to Leaving SChooL a Longitudinal Study ...

30
From Leaving Certificate to Leaving School
Maths, with 32 per cent of the higher professional group doing so compared
with 11 per cent among semi/unskilled manual groups.
Figure 2.5: Take-up of subject levels in Irish, English and Maths by
gender
80
70
60
%
50
40
30
Foundation
Ordinary
Higher
20
10
0
Male Female Male Female Male Female
Irish English Maths
Not surprisingly, prior achievement was strongly predictive of level takeup
across all three subjects, with higher-performing students (in terms of
overall Junior Certificate grades) much more likely to go on to take
higher level. Take-up of higher level English is less strongly structured
by prior achievement than the other subjects; a significant proportion of
low- to moderate-achieving students take higher level English while almost
all of the top quintile take the subject at higher level (Figure 2.6). In
contrast, even among the highest-achieving group, take-up of higher
level Maths is only 60 per cent. Overall, students in the top quintile are
17 times more likely than those in the lowest quintile to take higher level
Maths; the relevant ratios are 24 for Irish and 5.6 for English. Students
who had taken Transition Year were more likely to take higher level subjects
than those who had not (35 per cent v. 27 per cent for Irish, 76 per
cent v. 56 per cent for English and 24 per cent v. 17 per cent for Maths).
This pattern may, however, reflect differences between TY participants