Many students who take higher-level maths in the Leaving Cert still lack a basic understanding of arithmetic, algebra and geometry, college lecturers have told an advisory group to the Department of Education.
A new report, based largely on the views of maths teachers, acknowledges that many second-level teachers have themselves no "in-depth" understanding of the subject.
Maths lecturers, the report says, "cited evidence of low levels of understanding on the part of third-level students"- even those who had taken higher-level maths. "These difficulties may go back to the pre-Junior Cert period or even to primary school," it says.
The report was prompted by the crisis in maths at Leaving Cert. Last year over 12 per cent - close to 4,500 students - failed ordinary-level maths. A further 5,000 took foundation-level maths, which is not recognised by many third-level colleges.
Fewer than one in five Leaving Cert students take higher-level maths, and a further 11 per cent take the foundation-level exam. In contrast, some 60 per cent take higher-level English. The Republic fails to make the top 10 OECD states in maths standards for average 15-year-olds.
The report, agreed by the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NCCA), has been sent to Minister for Education Mary Hanafin. The Minister has expressed alarm on several occasions about maths standards.
The report outlines several concerns, including:
- the stress on rote learning of mathematical knowledge;
- the emphasis on procedural skills rather than understanding;
- the lack of application of maths to life situations;
- the difficulties experienced by many maths students at third level.
It blames the low standards on the increasing number of students doing part-time work. The "intuition associated with learning maths tables is gone", it says, because of the widespread use of calculators.
Last year a review of maths by the NCCA expressed concern about the difficulty of the subject at Leaving Cert level. It also signalled that foundation-level maths should be scrapped. The "formal language and rigorous specification of questions" in maths papers belonged to another era, it said, adding that a "root-and-branch review" of the subject, the first since the 1960s, may be required.
The employers' group Ibec has said poor standards in maths could undermine Ireland's economic ambitions.
A lecturer quoted in the new report says: "One might describe the teaching of maths as a preoccupation with the how of the subject to the almost total neglect of the why of the subject."