Improving maths levels ‘will take 10 years’

GOVERNMENT efforts to reverse falling maths standards will not be enough to see improvements for another decade, the head of the engineering profession has claimed.

As mixed results in the grades of more than 56,000 Junior Certificate students showed some cause for optimism, Engineers Ireland president PJ Rudden said maths education in Ireland was a total systemic failure in national education structures.

The numbers taking higher-level maths at Leaving Certificate fell below 16% for the first time this summer and Irish teenagers have fallen dramatically in international maths rankings.

But apart from test scores and exam results, colleges and industry leaders have been pointing to the shortfall of school leavers and graduates when it comes to vital mathematical ability.

Mr Rudden said Engineers Ireland will extend the programme of free grinds it has previously offered to Leaving Certificate students to those preparing for the Junior Certificate.

“It will take perhaps a decade or more to embed the new learning processes associated with the Department of Education’s reform agenda so industry must do as much as it can to support students in their attempts to grasp maths,” he said.

Those changes include more time being dedicated to numeracy at primary level from this school year, cutting the number of Junior Certificate subjects students can take and extended teacher training programmes.

Research and Innovation Minister Sean Sherlock this week announced a programme for about 2,000 second-level maths teachers who are not fully qualified in the subject, Although it will not be obligatory, the Department of Education expects a high uptake.

The other main change is the new Project Maths syllabus, offering a more practical approach aimed at improving student understanding of key concepts. It has been taught nationally for the past year but the first set of Junior Certificate results from 24 schools where it has been piloted were encouraging yesterday.

Just 45% of those doing exams on the traditional syllabus took higher-level maths in June, but there was a 52% uptake among the 2,269 students who did Project Maths. A higher proportion of the classes who studied the new course got an A, B or C than the rest of the country, while fail rates at Project Maths were lower.

It is hoped the changes will lead to 30% of students taking higher-level Leaving Certificate maths by 2020 and that the numbers failing the subject will drop significantly from the 4,000 who do so each of the past few years.

“We clearly require more students taking higher-level maths at Junior and Leaving Certificate level so that it converts into enough engineering and science graduates with requisite competencies to meet the needs of the ICT, energy, pharmaceutical and biomedical sectors,” Mr Rudden said.

The standard of entrants to college courses in many of these areas is up on last year, judging by the Leaving Certificate points needed when places were offered last month.