Where maths gets fun again: Inside a classroom without formulas or fear

Free UCC programme helps secondary students explore advanced maths, boosting confidence, creativity, and pathways to international competitions

Tutor Jack Dakissia explains the solutions to a problem at the Maths Enrichment classes at UCC on a Saturday morning. Pictures: Larry Cummins

“Miah is twice as old as Alice today, but six years ago, on the same day, he was three times as old as Alice was then. How old are Miah and Alice today?”

It's a Saturday in the Western Gateway Building at University College Cork, and the next generation of Ireland’s young mathematicians are set about solving a series of complex challenges.

The questions, which focus on equations and aim to familiarise students with abstract notations, are much more difficult than anything you’d find on the current Junior Cert curriculum.

This includes challenge 5, which askes about Miah and Alice, as well as a question testing student’s ability to all possible values of a mystery number: “The double of mystery number M(larger than 3) is divided by the difference between the mystery number M and the number 3, leaving a remainder of 2.”

The packed room is here for the Junior Math Enrichment programme, run by the Irish Mathematical Trust, an organisation of more than 80 mathematicians across Ireland.

It hosts the free weekly classes to introduce students to new ideas and concepts beyond the school syllabus, and to deepen their love and interest in maths as a subject.

It's a grey and damp early morning after a busy week in school when the Irish Examiner attends, but the class is full of students, who are mostly in second or third year. Some travel from as far as Tralee or Dungarvan to attend.

This maths workshop is different from their typical math class.

Junior students Habiba, Charlotte and Ciaran enjoy the maths challenges on a Saturday morning at UCC. 

Students can work in groups, chat, and work ahead. There is no one set formula or process they are expected to follow to find the answers to the questions before them, and taking a different path and creative thinking is encouraged.

A group of university students act as their tutors, working with them through the answers, and walking through the class to answer any of their questions. 

For the current school year, there are 340 students registered for maths enrichment classes at UCC, spread across five classes from junior to senior maths programmes.

Students work out their maths problems.

UCC hosts one of two long-running JMEs programmes, the other is at University College Dublin (UCD).

The classes also introduce second-level students to university lecturers. In UCC, the groups are led by Anca Mustata, a lecturer at School of Mathematical Sciences. 

UCC is the birthplace of the Junior Math Enrichment programmes, which had their beginnings in at a Math Week event at UCC, organised by the late Edwin O'Shea, where a group of mathematicians came together to found Math Circles Ireland, which aimed to make free, afterschool, maths extra-curriculars available to students at a young age.

After securing sponsorship from the Collison brothers-led Stripe, the Irish Mathematical Trust is now hoping to re-establish Junior Math Enrichment programmes at colleges in other parts of the country: Waterford, Tralee, Thurles, Galway, Maynooth, Sligo, and Letterkenny.

Some students are encouraged to sign up for the classes by their math teachers, who spotted their abilities. Is it very different to how they learn math in school?

“Quite a bit, yeah,” said first-year student Luke Gargan, from Rochestown. “This is less about memorising steps, and more about figuring out, what you think you could do to find the answer. It's a lot more hands on. Its more enjoyable.” 

Junior students Nabeela and Lucy.

Nabeela Islam, Clonakilty, is a second-year student. “I like that I got to meet new people here,” she said. “Math is one of my favourite subjects so my teacher recommended it to me. I’m just a person that learns better with numbers, so here it’s a little bit more advanced.” 

Lucy Chen, from the Dublin Pike area, said she finds this way of learning maths more engaging.

"In this class, we’re free to talk and think. In school, we can’t talk during class as we all have to listen to our teacher. In this class, we are allowed to discuss how we answer our questions and share different methods with each other.”

Ciarán Forrest, from Togher, is also a first-year student. His older brothers also attend senior maths classes at UCC. “It's fun. It's very different to what we’d be doing in school.” His advice to anyone who might find maths difficult, or who had a bad experience of the subject is simple: “Just keep trying. Give it a go.”

The backing of the Irish Mathematical Trust from Stripe sees the company also becoming the main sponsor of the Irish Math Olympiad, the national mathematics contest for second level students.

The performance of students in the olympiad is then used to help identify a team of students to represent Ireland at the prestigious International Mathematical Olympiad.

Ireland had their best-ever performance in the 2025 International Math Olympiad, with the team taking home two silvers and a bronze.

Next week, an Irish team of four will be heading to Bordeaux for the European Girls Math Olympiad, where they will face two days of “extremely tough” math challenges.

“It's been very popular, and it's prestigious,” said Neil Dobbs, Irish Mathematical Trust chair. 

“It's an amazing thing, we have a team of four girls going over, three coaches and team leaders who will advise the team and get involved.”

“The students won’t know what to expect, they are unseen problems. They may never have seen anything particularly similar in the past.”