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Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 16 October 2012

Tuesday, 16 October 2012

Questions (230)

Patrick O'Donovan

Question:

230. Deputy Patrick O'Donovan asked the Minister for Education and Skills if he will consider a change to the current leaving certificate that would allow fifth year students studying higher level maths to take the ordinary level maths paper at the end of fifth year and to have that factored into their leaving certificate results in the event that they fail the higher level paper, in an effort to reduce the number of students that revert to ordinary level in the immediate run up to their exam; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [44079/12]

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Written answers

This issue has been raised in a number of reports (Report of the Expert Group on Future Skills Needs on Raising National Mathematical Achievement and the Report of the Project Maths Implementation Support Group) and the Department of Education and Skills and the State Examinations Commission considered response is that this proposal could lead to an unsound educational experience for students. The Ordinary Level syllabus and Higher Level syllabus are both designed to be covered over a two year period. It could be a considerable challenge to encourage those who followed an Ordinary Level syllabus in year one of the cycle to take Higher Level in year 2. There is a strong risk they would not take Mathematics at all the second year. By the time these students reach further studies, they could have had an entire year without any mathematics at all, and would therefore be in a worse position than they had been a year earlier. It is interesting to note that for the 2012 Leaving Certificate cohort, the Higher Education Institutions participating in the CAO scheme introduced a measure to award 25 additional points for all grades from D3 to A1 in Higher-Level Mathematics. Their measure led to a significant increase in the numbers of Leaving Certificate candidates taking Higher Level Mathematics in 2012. It now stands at 22.1% of the Mathematics candidature (compared to 15.8% in 2011).

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