The Ministry of National Education, Children and Youth has announced the country’s exam results for the end of the school year 2016, revealing the best exam success rate in the last fifteen years.

The results were taken from the 2016 summer session following additional tests, and include results from both public and private schools which follow the Luxembourgish programme, those of the second qualification route (evening and eBAC courses) and those of Schengen-Lyzeum in Perl.

The total number of secondary education candidates was down at 1,793 from 1,874 in 2015. This year, the pass rate was 82% – a 2% increase from 2015. The adjournment rate remained the same at 14%, whilst the refusal rate dropped 2% to 4%.

77% of those in the technical system of technical secondary education passed their exams, against 70% in 2015. The adjournment rate was higher than in secondary education, at 17%, but this demonstrated a decrease from last year when it stood at 20%. The refusal rate was also slightly higher than in secondary education, but fell from 10% in 2015 to 6% in 2016.

Technician training, in the form of the previous system, demonstrated a success rate of 79% this year – a 9% improvement from last year. The total number of candidates was down to just 164 this year compared with 542. This 70% drop in exam-takers was attributed to the fact that the number of training courses organised under the former system have been progressively brought down with the extension of the reform. The adjournment rate was 17%, against 21% in 2015, whilst the refusal rate fell from 9% last year to 4% currently.

108 students received an “excellent” mention, meaning their results average was equal or greater to 52 points. This represented an increase of 21 students from last year, and was comprised of 87 students from secondary education and 21 from the technical system.

A gender comparison showed that girls performed better than boys in both secondary education and the technical system. In the former technician training, however, boys came out better than girls.