Blind focus on subject is no solution to our maths problem

Our nation’s leaders need to avoid putting all their educational eggs in one basket, writes education correspondent Niall Murray

THE outcome of a criminal court case this week summed up — albeit as an extreme example — how the college points system is warping our education system.

The pressure to get a top grade in physics was enough to get a young Dublin man to convince his classmate to sit the exam for him. The two 22-year-olds pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to impersonating each other in the exams at Christian Brothers College, Monkstown, four years ago, and were fined €200 each.