Leaving Cert results - Colleges can loosen up on mathematics

TODAY some 51,000 former pupils will wake up to realise that this is the first day in a new stage of their lives. They have finished secondary school and must make some momentous decisions about their future.

Education Minister Mary Hanafin called on students who did well in specific subjects to consider carefully what third level subjects they wish to pursue. The Government is still vitally interested in mathematics and the sciences, because there is a level of guaranteed investment in skilled, technological areas, provided we can produce the skilled workforce.

For the past five years, the numbers taking higher level mathematics in the Leaving Certificate had been below 20%. The difficulty of the examination is usually cited as a major reason for the low numbers. This naturally has a knock-on impact on both the entry and the performance of students in many third-level disciplines.

The Department of Education plans to encourage a higher level of participation in mathematics from the first days of secondary school under proposals to radically reform the way the subject is taught throughout the secondary cycle.

This will necessitate a revision not only in the content of the course, but also in teaching methods. Research has indicated that people may forget their maths, but they rarely forget their maths teachers, whether good or bad.

This poses a challenge for the future, but for the present there is the necessity of helping those who may have done well in subjects other than mathematics. They should be facilitated in third level institutions in fields that did not require a particular mathematical aptitude.

More than 4,000 students learned yesterday that they failed ordinary level mathematics, which will render them ineligible for most-third level courses, along with the more than 5,100 students who sat foundation level mathematics.

The minister noted that many of the students who failed ordinary level mathematics should probably have done the subject at foundation level. But they would have taken the ordinary level course in the hope of getting a third-level place.

It is absurd that entry to all of the institutes of technology — with the exception of the Galway-Mayo IT — have blanket entry requirement of a pass in mathematics at the ordinary level. They do not recognise a pass in foundation mathematics.

It is understandable that technological subjects that demand a mathematical aptitude should have such a requirement, but this should not apply to subjects like recreation and leisure courses, social care, tourism, or hotel and catering. Foundation mathematics should certainly be sufficient for such courses.

Maybe the dropping number of potential students — down over 5% on last year — will compel those institutions to take a more realistic look at their requirement. This is not an issue of dumbing down, but of facing the realistic aptitudes required for any specific area of study.