Bonus points for maths failing to lure

EXTRA POINTS won’t entice Leaving Cert students to take higher-level maths, a new survey suggests.

The survey conducted by Engineers Ireland found nearly two-thirds of ordinary-level maths students said they would not opt for higher-level maths even if offered bonus points. The online survey was completed by 122 students who sat higher- or ordinary-level Leaving Cert maths this year.

When asked about their perception of maths, 41 per cent of ordinary-level students surveyed believed higher-level maths was “too time-consuming”, almost one-quarter said they found it “scary” and 21 per cent felt they wouldn’t need maths when they left school.

Fionnuala Kilbane, communications director at Engineers Ireland, said “It’s clear that bonus points on their own are not the solution to getting more students to choose higher-level maths.”

Ms Kilbane said, “We need to look at the curriculum and how maths is taught. Maths shouldn’t be a remote and scary subject. Students need to understand its application in everyday life.”

The results come just weeks before the nationwide rollout of “Project Maths”, an initiative which the Department of Education has said will “reinforce the relevance of maths to everyday life, encourage greater take-up of higher-level maths and better prepare students for careers in science, technology and engineering”.

This new maths curriculum which has been piloted in 24 schools since 2008 will be rolled out to all first- and fifth-year students from September.

“We support what the Government is doing with Project Maths. We now need to see how it works in schools,” Ms Kilbane said.

The survey by Engineers Ireland also found that half of ordinary-level maths students thought their teacher was “average or poor” and 47 per cent said they experienced a change of teacher during their Leaving Cert years.

This comes six months after a University of Limerick survey of maths teachers and principals found almost half of second-level maths teachers are not qualified in that field.

Ms Kilbane said, “The Government must do more around standards in maths teaching to ensure the smart economy has the requisite supply of graduates with strong maths skills.”

The Department of Education has said its objective by 2018 is that all students will be taught mathematics solely by teachers who hold a mathematics qualification.