O’Keeffe goes to arm’s length for maths syllabus
The Education Minister had his height and arm span measured by students at Scoil Mhuire in Kanturk, Co Cork, one of 24 second level schools that are piloting the project maths programme.
“This might be what I look like after the budget on Tuesday,” he joked yesterday as he stood in a crucifix position against the wall of the school hall.
The students were already pleased with the way the new syllabus is helping them understand maths concepts, such as yesterday’s study of the ratios of height and body proportions as part of the statistics and probability strand of the course.
“Higher level maths has usually been hard but this is going to help more people take it up and hopefully make the exams easier,” said fifth year student Jack Mannix.
The revised syllabus has been developed by the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NCCA) in response to concerns about the low uptake of higher level maths and rising numbers failing the subject at ordinary level in the Leaving Certificate.
It will be extended to all schools from 2010 and students will be first examined in it for the 2012 Leaving Certificate and the Junior Certificate a year later.
The aim is to increase the numbers taking higher level Leaving Certificate maths from less than one-in-five to almost one-third of students.
NCCA chief executive Anne Looney said the new approach of piloting a curriculum in a small number of schools was intended to make sure it is introduced in the most effective way for students.
“We’ve probably erred too much in the past on the theoretical side for too many students, but we’re confident the balance we’re striking, with an applied approach to maths in real-world contexts, should work,” she said.
