Leaving Cert results - Decline in maths results a concern

SOME 57,500 people received their Leaving Certificate results yesterday. The high failure in mathematics is again a cause for real concern.

Only 16% of the 51,991 pupils sitting maths took the higher level paper in the Leaving Certificate this year. By not sitting the honours paper, pupils automatically excluded themselves from many third-level science, engineering and technology courses.

A proficiency in maths is essential for working in high-tech industries, which are performing strongest in job creation. Like the succession of education ministers before him, Ruairí Quinn admitted that much work must be done to increase the number of students taking higher-level maths.

The percentage sitting honours maths has continued to decline in recent years. It is down from a high of 18.9% in 2005, and is significantly out of line with other subjects.

Last year, 3,714 failed maths, but that number is up this year to 4,367. It does not take a mathematician to realise that those figures are an indictment of our education system.

Mr Quinn is hopeful that the Project Maths syllabus, to be rolled out across the country in September, will improve matters. Project Maths was included at 24 schools this year and the results of the 1,900 students who sat the subject were better, with indications that those students were substantially more likely to achieve a C3 grade or higher.

There was disappointment, however, in that only 16% took the higher level paper in those schools also. As an incentive, those taking higher-level maths in next year’s Leaving Certificate will get 25 extra bonus points.

Overall, the percentage of students gaining an A, B or C at higher levels is at its highest level ever — at 77% — up from 64% in 1992. Some 43% of students scored an A or B at higher level, up from 27% in 1992.

The general decline in maths results, however, reflect the most recent ranking published by the Organisation for Economic Co-operating and Development, which found an alarming decline in the levels of Irish literacy and numeracy.

Mr Quinn has encouraged young people who are disappointed with yesterday’s results to consider repeating the exam next year. Their experience this year will stand to them, he said. This year, 2,947 pupils repeated the Leaving Certificate.

This should really raise questions about the need to reform the points system, which requires teenage pupils — who have never lived away from home — to make career choices in secondary school on what courses to take at third-level. Surely we can learn from the American system in which students are only required to make those decisions after a year or two in third-level education.