§ Mr. Pawseyasked the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland if he will provide such information as is available to him on the pass rates and grades achieved by pupils in public examinations in Northern Ireland in each year since 1960; how these figures compare with the equivalent figures for the rest of the United Kingdom; and to what extent he attributes any variations in the level of performance indicated by the figures for Northern Ireland, on the one hand, and Great Britain on the other, to the differing ranges of A-level options available to pupils in the two parts of the United Kingdom.
§ Dr. MawhinneyInformation for each year since 1960 could be provided only at disproportionate cost. Information on pass-rates in selected years is as follows.
Northern Ireland has a lower entry rate to public examinations than England and Wales. This makes it difficult to assess the significance of the variations and whether they can be attributed to any specific factor.
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1960 1965 1970 1975 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 Total A-C 79.3 72.5 67.3 67.1 65.3 64.9 64.9 65.8 66.1 GCE 'A' Level Percentage achieving grade A 10.7 10.5 10.6 10.6 10.7 11.4 B 16.1 15.3 15.7 15.3 15.3 14.9 C 13.7 15.2 14.6 15.0 15.2 15.2 D 15.5 15.9 16.1 16.6 15.8 16.6 E 20.7 19.2 19.4 19.0 19.1 18.3 Total A-E 82.5 77.7 75.6 76.7 76.1 76.3 76.5 76.1 76.4 Note: Figures for England and Wales "pass-rates" do not always accord with the sum total of grades because pass-rates include subjects for which the grade of pass is not available.