Sir, – I sat my Leaving Certificate at the North Monastery in 1964. Everybody in my class took honours mathematics. It was no big deal, and we were all successful. Was the class of ’64 exceptional? I think not, but we did have an exceptionally gifted and dedicated teacher, Brother Vaughan. He was a hard taskmaster – failure was not an option – we didn’t need an extra 25 points to incentivise us!
Perhaps the Minister for Education would focus on the teaching of mathematics if he wants to increase the number of students taking honours maths.
The higher level paper is manageable for the majority of students, and I believe success is achievable for average students, through excellent teaching methods, and good study tactics.
Why single out maths as a problem subject? Who says it’s easier to write a good English essay than solve a quadratic equation? – Yours, etc,
Sir, – What wonderful results we’ve seen in the recent Leaving Certificate. I was particularly struck by the excellent results in Irish. Thousands of our young people have now completed up to 14 years of instruction in a central plank of our national identity.
May I make a plea to the class of 2011? You’ve been given the gift of a unique and ancient language that stretches back thousands of years in this beautiful land.
Now get out there and use it . . . Is féidir libh! – Yours, etc,
Sir, – My daughter completed her Leaving Cert this year. She took six honours subjects, and pass maths. When calculating points she could use her six best grades. She realised that the maximum points lay in her honours subjects. She didn’t bother with Maths, doing the minimum work required to achieved a pass grade.
I don’t believe the maths results are a true reflection of the mathematical abilities of Leaving Cert students. They might possibly be the result of a calculated decision made by students to maximise their points. – Yours, etc,
A chara, – Minister for Education Ruairí Quinn is (predictably) calling for a drastic revision of our examination system, with a big increase of in-school continuous assessment, at the very time when our neighbour to the east is taking steps to go back to exams (Home News, August 18th). A senior government minister in England called this year for the abandonment of continuous assessment – making his comments during the exam season.
The fatal problems of continuous assessment are obvious to anyone who will stop and think. Exams are (obviously) not perfect, but they are completely fair if they are externally marked. Our State Exams Commission has developed a procedure that is as close to foolproof as could be imagined.
Project work cannot be guaranteed as the genuine work of the pupil unless it is done under supervision – which turns it back into an examination! For “assessment” during the year, teachers are under great pressure to “help” their pupils, and end up doing more work than the pupils.
But perhaps the worst result is that, the moment assessment (which also includes in-school marking of pupils’ exams) is carried out by the school instead of anonymously, parents and employers will look, not at the score on a printed certificate, but at the reputation of the school itself. In the desire to be egalitarian, this ill-informed thinking leads straight back to the elitism that they were trying to avoid.
This was obvious from the beginning to the majority of teachers in England, but the government steamrollered it all in anyway, with only derisory consultation of the teachers themselves (after all, what would they know about teaching?) not to mention a mountain of bureaucratic paperwork and a heavy-handed inspection process that exhausted teachers’ energies and greatly hindered their actual teaching.
I taught there (and elsewhere) for many years, and it was a wonderful relief to return to Ireland and sanity in the classroom. How disappointing to see our politicians repeating these mistakes, decades after the experience of other countries proves their failure. – Is mise,