Large increase in Kilkenny students not completing Leaving Cert

The figures cover Kilkenny students who entered post-primary education between 2014 and 2018

Published 27th May 2026, 16:30 BST The figures cover Kilkenny students who entered post-primary education between 2014 and 2018 The number of post-primary students in Kilkenny exiting school before completing their Leaving Certificate exams increased by almost 40% over the last five years.

According to figures released by Minister for Education, Hildegarde Naughton TD, 99 pupils who entered secondary school in 2014 left before their leaving cert with this number increasing to 138 for the cohort who began in 2018.

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The increase in early leavers has outpaced population growth in the county where there was a rise of just six exam pupils across the same period, from 1212 to 1218 between the respective cohorts.

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Despite the overall drop in retention percentage, Kilkenny still maintained an above average figure compared to other counties as the 89.8% of Leaving Cert sitters was the tenth highest nationally.

Meath had the highest national retention percentage at 92.1% while Roscommon had the lowest by a considerable margin at 84.78%.

The proportion of students exiting education before the Leaving Cert were much higher in DEIS schools with these making up 43% of early leavers with DEIS students accounting for about 25% of all pupils nationally.

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