Grades rise as bar drops

One in three high school pupils received top honors during the 2019-2020 academic year, marking a significant rise in the overall number of those that excelled.

However, it is seen as questionable whether this positive news is due to the improvement in the level of pupils as, almost consistently, one in three high school graduates fail to receive a passing grade in university entry exams.

The increase in the number of top-scoring pupils has been attributed to the fact that, due to the pandemic, no written exams were held at the end of the previous school year. Official data from 2019-20 shows top-scoring pupils increased to 227,100 from 181,790 in 2018-19.