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.