The number of people earning GED’s declined in the state last year, according to officials.

In 2014, the test saw its first major overhaul in more than a decade.

At Tuesday’s Children’s Policy Council meeting, YES program job pilot Ronda Ricks said the number in Alabama declined from more than 10,000 in 2013 to less than 2,000.

“This is why we are doing the online high school now,” she said. “It does take a little bit longer, though.”

The exam is labeled as more difficult than the previous test and is more expensive than the old test.

Nationally, 248,000 took the test in 2014, while only 86,000 successfully earned a GED, according to GED Testing Services.

Those numbers are significantly less than 2013, when 800,000 people took the test and 560,000 earned their GED.

For more info, call Mandy Waters at 393-3783.