STUDENTS SITTING higher level Leaving Certificate maths may be able to benefit from bonus points towards their third-level course within two years, Minister for Education Mary Coughlan said yesterday.
Speaking after bodies such as the Irish Business and Employers Confederation (Ibec) and the American Chamber of Commerce Ireland expressed renewed disappointment at the high failure rate in the subject in this year’s Leaving Cert, Ms Coughlan said she hoped the Government would be in a position to “encourage and entice” students into taking the higher level exam by 2012.
“I would reiterate my view, and it is being listened to by the universities, that we would be in a position to introduce additional bonus points in 2012 for higher education mathematics,” she said.
Such a policy would persuade students “to make that very difficult decision to spend a considerable amount more time doing higher level mathematics”.
More than 4,300 of the 58,000 students who sat the Leaving Cert failed maths, and only 16 per cent sat the higher level paper.
Failure rates in science subjects such as biology (9 per cent), chemistry (8 per cent) and physics (7 per cent) were considerably higher than those for Irish and English, which fewer than 2 per cent of candidates failed.
The American chamber said the performance of Irish students in maths and science subjects was disappointing “considering the focus on developing a smart economy”.
Ibec estimated that less than half of second level mathematics teachers had a major qualification in the subject, and said maths was “critical for the success of the high-value knowledge-intensive business sectors that will drive our economic recovery”.
Ms Coughlan, who spoke to reporters during a visit to Portmarnock Community School in Dublin, said the new “user-friendly” Project Maths course – examined for the first time this year – would now be rolled out across the State.
The course attracted a higher percentage of higher level students (18.7 per cent) from the 24 schools in the pilot programme.
On the issue of education funding, Ms Coughlan reiterated that third-levels fees would not be introduced during this Government, but refused to rule out a further increase in the student registration charge. The charge, which student bodies and Opposition politicians have described as “fees by stealth”, increased from €900 to €1,500 last year.
“We have not made any decisions and have not come to any finality with the Minister for Finance on any reductions in my expenditure, and it won’t happen until the budget,” Ms Coughlan said. “I can’t rule out anything at this moment in time and I don’t think it is appropriate, for that matter, to speculate.
“I do appreciate third level is under considerable pressure, and we have heard a number of universities indicate that themselves, and I am working with them to see where we can bring greater efficiencies into the sector to deal with the difficulties we have from an economic perspective,” she added.
Ms Coughlan said she believed Irish students were very highly regarded internationally. “I know from my previous portfolio in enterprise that there has been an acceptance that our education acumen has been very high and that we have great talent in this country, great skills and great flexibility,” she said.
Ms Coughlan said it appeared students were now reacting to the difficulties in the jobs market and focusing on obtaining skills which would result in employment opportunities in a smart economy.
She said those who did not obtain the points they required should not fear, as “not everyone in this country started off achieving what they wanted to achieve the day they left secondary school”.
She added: “There will be other opportunities within the CAO, you can also defer, and there are other opportunities in further education which can in fact facilitate you as long as you are well informed . . . There’s no need in panicking at 18 or 19 years of age in this country when there are other opportunities.”
