Concern at fall in higher maths numbers

FEWER students are taking higher level maths despite Government efforts to reverse the trend of recent years. The grades achieved by the Leaving Certificate class of 2009 show a welcome drop in numbers failing ordinary level maths, but a continuation of the falling level of interest in the tougher exam.

In 2006, just under one in five sat the higher level paper but that proportion has continued to fall, with fewer than one in six taking it this June.

Equally of concern is the fact that the numbers sitting foundation maths is on the rise, up from just over one in 10 three years ago to almost one in eight this year.

The figures suggest something deeply wrong with the impression second-level students are getting about maths.

The Project Maths curriculum, designed to give students a flavour of the more practical applications of the subject, has been piloted in 24 second-level schools since last autumn.

But the fact that 3,876 people, or just over one in 10, failed ordinary level maths remains a concern, restricting them from many third-level courses.

On a more positive note, the proportion to fail ordinary level maths is significantly smaller than a year ago. In 2008, the 4,367 students who failed at that level represented almost one in eight ordinary level candidates.

Last December, a report to Tánaiste Mary Coughlan at the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment recommended ways of improving the uptake of higher level maths, including initiatives to enhance the quality of second-level maths teaching and better support for weaker pupils at primary level.

Irish teenagers perform mid-table in maths compared with their counterparts in most developed countries, but the Government's aim of generating a stream of graduates skilled in technology, engineering and science will require much higher standards.

It will be another three years before the revised teaching methods under Project Maths are tested in the Leaving Certificate, but the aim by then is to have one in three taking the subject at higher level.

The other focus of Government policy in recent years has been to get more students taking physics and chemistry, and while the numbers sitting chemistry are on the rise, fewer are taking physics in each of the last two years, despite rising numbers of Leaving Certificate students.

Also worrying are the numbers who are not excelling at these subjects, with 7% of higher level chemistry candidates failing this year and almost 8% failing higher level physics.

The numbers taking both subjects at ordinary level are quite small but there is bad news today for one in six in chemistry and one in 10 students who took physics at ordinary level, with them getting an E grade or worse.

Fortunately, the debacle around this year's English Paper 2 does not appear to have impacted significantly on results. The paper had to be taken on the first Saturday in June because the initial exam paper, scheduled for the previous Thursday, was handed out the day before in error in a Co Louth school.

At the time, students and subject representatives for the teacher unions reported no great difficulty with the replacement exam and this appears to be reflected in the results issued to students this morning. While the proportion getting honours grades (A1 to C3 inclusive) in higher level English is down slightly to almost 76%, the variation is not out of line with grade trends in other years.

At ordinary level, almost 78% of candidates got an honours grade, up from 76.3% a year ago and 77.2% in 2007.

While biology has overtaken French as the fourth most popular Leaving Certificate subject, almost 9% of the 20,101 higher level candidates failed the exam and 15.3% of the 7,999 ordinary level students failed their exam.

A rise in numbers taking higher level Irish is also notable, with 86.5% of those who did so getting an A, B or C, the highest honours rate for the more popular subjects.