Grade patterns show very little variation in standards
In English, the performances of students at higher level are almost identical to their 2010 counterparts and there is not much difference either in ordinary level grades.
Just under one-third of those who sat Irish papers — down almost 550 overall to less than 44,400 — took higher level but nearly 84% were rewarded with an honours grade (A, B or C). Almost one-in-nine students of Irish chose foundation level, while more than three-quarters of the 25,220 taking ordinary level exams got honours.
There is more mixed news for maths this year, with the number doing higher level slumping further, down to 15.8% of all 51,991 who took papers in the subject. This is down from 16% last year and on a constant downward trend from almost one-in-five a decade ago.
The proportion taking ordinary level also fell slightly but still remains at close to three-in-four, as the number taking the foundation level exams now stands at almost one-in-eight. But most of those with foundation level maths are ineligible for most college courses, along with the 3,700-plus, or just under 10%, of those who failed the ordinary level exams.
Otherwise, grades are very similar to other years, with almost 81% of the 8,237 taking higher level getting an A, B or C, and just under 70% of ordinary level candidates scoring an honours grade.
But even in the 24 schools offering the pilot Project Maths course for the last two years, less than one-in-six students who sat slightly different papers in June to those in the rest of the country opted for higher level.
When elements of this revised syllabus were examined for the first time last year, much was made of the higher level uptake among Project Maths students being above the national cohort at 18.5%. But it has dropped to 16% — or 318 — of the 1,984 students who took Project Maths papers this summer, barely above the national rate.
This could be linked to what appeared to be the relatively tough marking of last year’s inaugural exam, but the proportion getting higher level As this time around is very similar to those among the rest of the country’s maths students, at almost 13%. More encouraging, perhaps, may be the fact that nearly 90% of Project Maths students got an A, B or C and the 0.9% who failed at higher level compares favourably with a 3.1% fail rate for those taking the traditional papers.
Similar patterns of better grades are also evident for the 1,437 students who took ordinary level Project Maths exams, with more than 75% getting honours and less than 7% failing.
Engineers Ireland reported yesterday that almost two-thirds of a group of 180 Leaving Certificate students it surveyed would like the numbers in classes halved to help them cope with the challenges of the subject. Just over half felt that their maths teachers needed extra training to teach the subject, and 46% said they need maths grinds.
But while more professional development for teachers to improve students’ numeracy is planned by the Government, there could be more students rather than less in maths classes from autumn 2012 if threatened cuts to school staffing rates go ahead.
This is likely to do little to bridge the skills gap which, Engineers Ireland said, is responsible for the inability of companies to fill 1,200 jobs in maths-related areas such as pharmaceutical and biomedical engineering.
While the focus among industry and political leaders remains on the needs of the knowledge economy, the subject choices of this year’s Leaving Certificate show students continue to follow their own interests.
The numbers taking agricultural science have jumped 22% in two years, for example, including a 12% rise since last year to almost 6,500. At the same time, however, numbers choosing physics as a Leaving Certificate subject continue to fall as it drops further behind chemistry with just 6,516 students, less than 50 more than those doing agricultural science.
This rising interest has already been reflected in the numbers placing agriculture courses at the top of their college lists. The 15 such programmes offered through the Central Applications Office attracted almost 1,600 students’ first preferences, almost double the numbers who ranked them first on their forms in 2008.
At the same time, the popularity of engineering as a Leaving Certificate is barely creeping upward, with 5,063 students sitting Leaving Certificate papers in June, only 37 more than in 2010.
Conversely, the numbers taking construction studies remain relatively high in the context of the slump in that industry, with 8,710 getting results in the subject this morning, down from just over 9,000 a year ago. While it is just 4.6% fewer than the number to sit exams in it two years ago, it is the same number as entered for construction studies in 2008.
Teachers’ Union of Ireland president Bernie Ruane said the figures make clear that national education and training strategies must continue to provide options allowing for training of people in vocational trades.
Design and communications graphics, formerly technical drawing and a key subject for many aspiring architects, is dropping in popularity. The 5,680 students who took it in this year’s Leaving Certificate is 449 fewer than a year ago, mirroring a dropping numbers applying for architecture degrees whose popularity is down one-third among CAO applicants in the last three years.
The numbers taking accounting have fallen further to 5,824, down from almost 7,000 just two years ago. But music continues to grow in popularity, taken this year by 5,978 students and earning an honours grade for all but 6% of those who opted for higher level.
