Minister for Education Ruairi Quinn has warned against ‘quick fix’ changes to the education system but said incentivising Leaving Certificate students to do higher level maths by giving them extra points had worked “beyond anybody’s expectation”.
Speaking after almost 56,000 students received their exam results today, Mr Quinn said it had been “a good day for the Leaving Certificate”.
Asked if he was concerned that the additional 25 points awarded to students who took the higher level maths paper this year might skew the points for third level courses, Mr Quinn said the incentive had been designed to have a distorting effect.
But he said he would wait until next Monday to see what the points system produced. He said he would like to get consistent data over two or three years to see what the outcome was.
On whether he would consider similar incentivisation for subjects such as physics, chemistry or biology, Mr Quinn said everything would flow from getting numeracy and literacy right first.
The Minister said he was awaiting a report from the heads of the third level institutions, who control the points system, to see what changes they proposed. He noted said the number of courses had increased by 300 per cent over the last 10 to 15 years and that would be addressed.
“That will deal with a better transfer from second level to third level.”
He said there would be changes to the Junior Cert for students entering the system from September 2014. They would sit their exams in 2017, three years later. Changes would include reducing the number of subjects taken by students.
“You can’t push it any faster and I think if you tried to you’d make a mess of it,” he said, adding that instant curriculum changes in Britain had been “counterproductive”.
Mr Quinn said changes to the Leaving Certificate and the “bridge” through to third level was “more complex”, however.
He said we needed to produce pupils “who are able to think for themselves rather than remember something that was written out and read by them”.
“That’s a cultural change and modern technology will help in relation to that.”
“We are moving cautiously and slowly because I want the changes to be effective, to be the right kind of change that this country needs,” Mr Quinn said.
“I want the stakeholders within the education system, the principals and the boards of management and the teachers themselves to feel that yes, this is the way to go.”
“Too much experimentation with educational change, as we’ve seen across the water is a warning not to go for the ‘quick fix’ type of solution simply because it fits within the electoral or political cycle.”
In a reversal of recent trends, the number failing maths in the Leaving Certificate has fallen dramatically, while record numbers opted to take the subject at higher level.
While the number failing maths this year is still relatively high at close to 4,000, this is down by 20 per cent on recent years. The results were available to collect from schools since 9am. They were available online from noon.
A record number of students took higher level maths in the exam – 22 per per cent of all maths students took the higher paper, compared to 16 per cent last year. Remarkably, only 256 students of the 11,000-plus who took higher maths failed the paper.
This year, students were examined for the first time on some elements of the new Project Maths course, which has been criticised over “dumbing down’’ by some teachers.
Minister for Research and Innovation Sean Sherlock today welcomed the increase in the numbers taking the higher level paper and he defended the 25-point bonus offered to students who took it.
"What we want to achieve ultimately is a situation where all of our students into the future are equipped with the skills that are necessary to meet the needs of industry but also to meet the needs of academia should they pursue that line," he said.
Fianna Fáil education spokesman Charlie McConalogue said he was delighted to see the positive effect that Project Maths and the additional bonus CAO points had on the numbers taking the subject at higher level.
"We are concerned at the potential significant increase in points across a number of courses particularly those courses that are essential to the knowledge economy such as science and technology courses where there will undoubtedly be increased competition for places. If points increase dramatically then more places need to be put on stream."
Last night, some critics alleged examiners were “pressurised’’ to deliver better grades in maths. But the State Exams Commission strongly rejected these claims, issuing a lengthy statement detailing the marking process.
In the Dáil last month, Fine Gael TD Mary Mitchell O’Connor said she had "been informed by a corrector of the Leaving Certificate honours mathematics paper that in one of the 75-mark questions . . . the marking system has been changed drastically because the results are so dismal".
Exam results published this morning also show a marked increase in the numbers taking Irish at higher level. The other striking feature is the fall-off in the number of exam candidates from grind schools, down over 20 per cent.
The sharp increase in numbers taking higher level maths comes after colleges agreed to Mr Quinn’s request to offer bonus CAO points for those taking the paper. This year, the 10,875 students with a grade D3 or better in higher level maths will secure a bonus 25 CAO points. This means they will enjoy a considerable advantage over the 35,000 students who took the ordinary level paper.
The CAO will publish its first round of college offers next Monday. Over 32,000 places are available in Level 8 or higher degree courses.
It is expected the bonus points system will lead to a significant increase in points, especially for high-demand courses in such areas as science, technology and agriculture.
Career experts say the scattergun impact of the bonus points system could also see increased points even for areas such as arts and business.
The 11 per cent increase in the number taking higher level Irish is being linked to the new marking scheme that awards 40 per cent to the oral exam. Overall, the number taking higher level Irish increased by almost 5 per cent to 37 per cent.
Other main features of the results include:
Three students secured nine A1 grades, while 10 gained eight A1s. In all, 150 students scored a “perfect’’ Leaving with six A1s or better;
Failure rates remained high in several ordinary level subjects, including chemistry (16.6 per cent), biology (13.5 per cent) and physics (10.6 per cent);
Failure rates were also high in several language subjects at ordinary level, including Italian (10.3 per cent), French (6.9 per cent) and Spanish (7.2 per cent);
Among the main subjects, music is the “easiest’’ honour at higher level. Over 95 per cent of students secured an A, B or C;
Biology and business are the “hardest” honours, with an A, B or C rate of 71 per cent.
President Michael D Higgins complimented all those students who took the exams.
"Today is one important moment in their lives. I have every confidence that young people will develop all of their talents in different ways. My wish for them is that they never lose confidence in what they can achieve personally and with others in shaping the future together," he said.
Peter O’Neill, president of the American Chamber of Commerce Ireland, which represents more than 600 US companies in Ireland, praised the bonus points system.
“Students who traditionally would have studied ordinary level maths seeking an ‘A’ grade have pushed themselves into the higher level stream and achieved honours at the higher level. This is a welcome development,” he said.
The national science promotion programme Discover Science and Engineering (DSE) said the increase in the numbers of students taking higher level maths would put them in a strong position to study science and technology at third level.
Director of the organisation Dr Graham Love said companies requiring science, technology, engineering and maths graduates were the fastest growing sectors of the economy. An increased uptake of such subjects at third level were required, he said.
Managing director of HP Ireland, Martin Murphy said that while we could "take encouragement from some positive results, we should be ambitious and a range of urgent reforms are needed to bring our education system up to world-leading standard".
