Singular failure

IN his letter (August 20), Brendan Casserly wonders whether the media hype up the failure rate in Leaving Cert maths and whether the figures could be similar for English, French and geography. The short answer is no, with French being the closest with approximately one-third of the number who didn’t pass maths.

However, it is disappointing that anyone should fail subjects, particularly at ordinary level. Perhaps a few days out of the secondary teachers’ three-month summer holiday could be set aside to help struggling students?

Tom Kindlon