Just under half of all children born in 2000 received the SEC exam grades necessary to get into Sixth Form this year, the MATSEC Board has said.
The 49.4 per cent figure is the highest since 2004, the board's annual statistical report noted.
39.1 per cent of students born in 2000 who sat for SEC exams in May 2016 managed to get a passing grade in at least nine subjects. When grades six and seven were discounted, that figure fell to 33.3 per cent, the report said.
When overall passes (Grades 1 to 7) were considered, the mean pass rate for the SEC subjects offered was 85.5 per cent, equalling last year's high. If Grades 1 to 5 were considered, this was 68.5 per cent.
Almost 95 per cent of children born in 2000 in Malta obtained a passing grade in English Language, 87.6 per cent got one in Maltese and 93.4 in Mathematics.
When only grades 1 to 5 were considered, these figures changed to 70.7 per cent, 72.5 per cent and 59.0 per cent respectively. These figures were higher than previous years', the Board said in its report.
In total, 5,830 candidates sat for at least one SEC exam in the May session. Two-thirds of those (63.7 per cent) was born in 2000, with more than four in every five children born that year having registered to sit for their SEC exams.
SEC candidates are given the option of sitting for an 'A' or 'B' paper, with only 'Paper IIA' paper candidates eligible to receive the highest grades. Until 2002, most candidates tended to opt for 'Paper IIB'.
That trend has now been reversed, with the majority of registrations this year (63.9 per cent) for Paper IIA. Mathematics was a notable exception, with 55.9 per cent of candidates applying to sit for Paper IIB.
Candidates from church and independent schools were the most likely to apply for Paper IIA. Conversely, applicants at boys' state schools, students at post-secondary institutions and private candidates were the most likely to opt for Paper IIB.
Less than one in every five applicants (16.6 per cent) applied for examinations in all three science subjects. The figure was however the second-highest since 2004.