Standards warning - Time for an education reality check

THE declining standards argument about social, moral and educational systems is as old as society itself but that does not mean we can afford to ignore those who would add their voice to that time-honoured but often derided discourse.

Donal Hurley, senior lecturer at University College Cork’s maths department, is the latest to add his tuppence worth to the debate, claiming that far too many students begin their third-level education without a sufficient understanding or competency in maths.

The figures bear out that contention. There is a very high failure rate at ordinary level and only one in six Leaving Certificate students sit higher level maths. Last year more than 4,000 out of 35,000 students failed ordinary level maths. That means that more than one in 10 could not pass a fairly basic maths exam. It is hard to imagine that anyone, least of all the teachers or the students, finds this acceptable.

Declarations of ministerial disappointment and the promise of reform have become hardy annuals but, as Mr Hurley points out, this dissatisfaction has yet to lead to any substantial change in the way maths is taught.

There is a perception that maths is not the only area where there is cause for concern. Anyone who has the opportunity to share a glass of wine with nearly anyone involved in third-level education will hear disconcerting stories about literacy and a difficulty in constructing simple sentences or conveying basic concepts. And that’s just English. Other languages, in the majority of instances, remain more or less a mystery.

That our future depends on a knowledge-based economy has assumed the status of a sacred mantra but unless our children become more proficient in maths, and other subjects, we are deluding ourselves. That delusion will be put in a stark and worrying context at the end of the week when, it is anticipated, the Economic and Social Research Institute will confirm that our economy is in a steep decline.

Concerns about maths standards find an echo in a statement released yesterday by the Irish Federation of University Teachers, which has sounded the alarm bells at what it describes as the commercialisation of universities.

The federation is worried that colleges are embarking on expansion plans driven by income targets rather than educational standards.

It is unlikely that any university could survive without funding from business, so the realpolitik of that must be acknowledged but that should not mean that academic standards in all subjects should be jeopardised by these alliances.

Maybe each contribution from a business that wishes to subsidise, say, chemical education, should be subject to some sort of levy to fund education in the classics or an alternative counterpoint. This might help the classical definition of a university to co-exist more easily with the contemporary version.

While we fret about maths and the commercialisation of universities, Britain’s Association of Teachers and Lecturers will debate a motion at its annual conference next week calling for homework to be abolished for younger children, and to lessen it for teenagers.

Homework should be scrapped because the pressure makes pupils “unhappy and anxious”, say the teachers. Middle-class children can go home and get help with their homework; disadvantaged children can’t and then they get in trouble, is the argument.

The homework proposal will fuel an episode or two in the falling standards debate but our focus should be elsewhere. We should be taking notice of all the warnings about the inadequacy of our schools and universities. Never was the admonishment Must Do Better more urgent or appropriate.