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Human error has been blamed for a mistake in the overview of GCSE results published yesterday.
The Committee for Education, Sport and Culture sent the media two corrected versions, the day after grades were released to students yesterday morning.
The Director of Education, Nick Hynes has now apologised and sought to explain what happened.
He said the result is that the reported drop in results from 2019 to 2023 was "less significant than originally reported".
This came about due to some data inputting and formatting errors.
Mr Hynes said that changing to a new system of reporting data for this year's Level 2 results also impacted the accuracy of the information being shared.
The correct data can be read in full HERE.
Mr Hynes' statement is in full below:
"We produced a range of data sets for this year’s Level 2/GCSE exam results that we have not previously published. We did this to support efforts to publish broad data and enable better comparisons with other jurisdictions.
"Where we have published the percentage of students achieving Level 4 or above in both maths and English, we have produced the data for previous years in addition to 2023, again for comparative purposes. This afternoon we identified an issue with the 2019 combined English and maths data for La Mare de Carteret High and St Sampson’s High, which resulted from a mixture of inputting and formatting errors.
"The correct figures show that the drop in results from 2019 to 2023 was less significant than originally reported.
"I take full responsibility for the mistake and apologise unreservedly for the error, particularly to the Principals of those schools.
"Please note that the 2023 data published yesterday remains accurate, but it is obviously important that we update previous years’ data to ensure effective comparisons."
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