Northern Ireland GCSE students are top of the class yet again.
They are continuing to outperform their peers in England and Wales as figures show another set of celebratory exam results.
The proportion of entries award A* to C grades has risen by 0.7% to 81.1%.
Girls are also ahead of boys when it comes to sitting GCSEs in Northern Ireland.
The number of girls achieving A* to C grades rose by 0.9% to 85.1% while the proportion of boys achieving the same grades increased by 0.5% to 76.9%.
Around 30,000 students sat the examinations set by the CCEA.
Justin Edwards, chief executive of the CCEA, congratulated all those students who received their results.
“Northern Ireland’s students have once again demonstrated good outcomes across all grades, reflecting the hard work that takes place in our schools and colleges,” he said.
And he added that students here continue to achieve better in comparison to pupils in England and Wales.
“There are some patterns worth further analysis, such as the continued widening of the performance gap at A*-C grades between males and females.
“Subject choices remain stable with over 40% of students here now studying a STEM qualification. There were positive increases in Further Mathematics entries,” he said.
The number of girls who sat STEM related subjects rose by 4.9% while the number of boys increased by 0.1%.
