Record sum lured by maths bonus

A record one-in-four Leaving Certificate maths students took higher level exams this year, as the impact of bonus points for college entry rises.

However, a 13% fall in those taking Leaving Certificate Applied (LCA) has raised concerns that the impact of staffing cuts to schools in recent years is only now emerging.

The 13,014 students who took higher level maths this year are among 55,500-plus due to receive exam results today, including 2,805 who did the LCA.

The State Examinations Commission says the rise in higher level maths uptake — from just 16% in 2011 and 22% a year ago — is mostly down to the awarding, by most colleges since last year, of 25 extra points for students with a pass grade or better at honours level. The proportion who got an A is also up slightly to 11%, although 10% fewer got an honours grade (A, B, or C).

The rising standards should be welcomed by colleges and industry leaders who have questioned the mathematical abilities of third-level entrants over recent years, particularly for science, engineering, and related degrees.

Following an outcry over a mistake in Leaving Certificate Maths Paper 2 in June, the SEC said it applied extra rigorous measures to ensure no student was disadvantaged by the inclusion of the wrong angle in a diagram with the trigonometry question.

Education Minister Ruairi Quinn received a report from the SEC this week in relation to what it admits was a higher-than-normal level of errors on papers in the Junior and Leaving Certificate exams.

“The SEC wishes to again apologise to candidates who may have been affected by these regrettable errors,” it said last night.

As students receive their grades at more than 700 schools this morning, the attention of most will turn to next week’s college offers from the CAO.

The Teachers’ Union of Ireland raised questions about a drop of 400 — more than 13% — since last year in the number of students who did the LCA, to just over 12,800.

It fears the programme, which helps to keep thousands of students from dropping out of education, is no longer being run at many schools because of cuts to teacher numbers and other resources.

The Department of Education said there has been only a slight drop in the number of schools offering LCA, from 296 in 2008 to 282 this year, a fall of less than 5%.

One student has got nine higher-level A1s, while 704 students got at least four A1s at higher level, down from 768 in 2012.