Lá Oscailte Ghaelscoil Dhroichead na Bandan
August 17, 2012
Girls outperform boys in most Leaving subjects
August 17, 2012
Girls get more honours in English and Irish
FEMALE STUDENTS have outperformed their male counterparts again i n most Leaving Certificate subjects, an analysis of this year’s results shows.
Following their higher-level success last year, girls continue to get more honours in English, Irish, maths, French, German, history and geography.
Subjects in which boys gained more honours grades were construction studies and engineering .
Ordinary level classical studies and combined physics and chemi stry ( higher and ordinary level) had some of the highest failure rates.
In higher-level maths the genders were almost even with 83.3 per cent of females achieved honours, compared to 83.2 per cent of male students.
The failure rate in higher level maths was 2 per cent for girls and 2.7 per cent for boys.
In ordinary level maths girls outperformed boys, with an 8.2 per cent failure rate compared with 10.7 per cent for boys.
In English, more girls than boys sat the higher-level paper and girls ( 78.6 per cent ) did better than boys (73.8 per cent) . The difference was more stark at ordinary level English exam where more boys sat the exam but a significantly larger percentage of girls achieved an honours grade (82.3 per cent for girls compared with 74.1 per cent for boys).
This stark gender difference was also evident at ordinary level Irish where 81.1 per cent of girls achieved honours compared with 68.2 per cent of boys. In higher level the difference was less with 88.4 per cent of girls achieving honours compared with 85.2 per cent of boys.
In European languages – French, German and Spanish – girls outperformed boys at higher level.
In the sciences girls outperformed boys in higher-level physics, chemistry and biology.
At higher level biology 72.7 per cent of girls got an honour compared to 68.5 per cent for the opposite sex.
The difference was closer in the results of physics at higher level where 75.3 per cent of girls achieved an honour compared to74.4 per cent of boys.
Failure rates for chemistry were high for both genders. At ordinary level failure rates were 13.1 per cent for girls and 19.9 per cent for boys. At higher level it was 7.6 per cent for girls and 10.7 per cent for boys.
In business, economics and accounting girls achieved more honours grades than boys,.
Almost twice as many girls as boys took higher and ordinary level music. However the results at higher level were even with a 94.8 per cent honours grade for both sexes.
At ordinary level honours grades in music were high for girls and boys, with 91.8 per cent and 83.3 per cent respectively achieving a C3 or above.
More females than males took higher level art this year and girls achieved more honours at higher level.
Boys edged out girls in ordinary level religious studies, with 74.3 per cent of boys achieving honours compared to 72.7 per cent of girls. Girls outperformed boys at higher level
Classical studies had a high failure rate at ordinary level with 28.5 per cent of girls and 40 per cent of boys failing, although only a small number of students sat the subject at ordinary level.
At foundation level girls outperformed boys in maths and Irish. In Irish 83.1 of girls achieved an honour compared with 69.3 per cent of boys.
http://www.irishtimes.com/
Cúis cheiliúrtha Raidió Rí-Rá
August 17, 2012
Faoiseamh agus sonas le dáileadh torthaí A-Leibhéal
August 17, 2012
Shane leads roll of honour at gaelscoil
August 16, 2012
Shane Kelly led the first roll of honour at Gaelcholáiste Luimní with 8 As.
He and 30 others were the first Leaving Cert graduates at the all-Irish school, which opened at Sir Harry’s Mall in 2006.
In Bruff the celebrations were tinged with sadness as Sr Geraldine Lennon had the task of locking up at the FCJ Ard Schoil Mhuire, which has been the core of education in Co Limerick for more than 150 years.
But there was one binding emotion at both schools: the satisfaction of a job well done.
Shane Kelly, 17, who lives at Old Cratloe Road, said: “I plan to do medicine at UCC. I skipped transition year and my younger brother Richard, 12, starts here in first year on Friday. The education we got here was second to none and the principal, Donncha Ó Treasaigh was the most dedicated man and fantastic school principal. We feel very honoured to be the first group of Leaving Cert students to graduate.”
Deputy principal Sinéad Ní Chiardha said they were absolutely delighted with their results. She said: “We could not have asked for more. A huge percentage got over 450 points and eight received over 500 points. They are a very unique group in that they put their trust in us when the school opened in 2006 without knowing what the future would hold and they have today been very well rewarded.
“All the time and commitment of our 34 teaching staff and the students has paid off.”
http://www.irishexaminer.com/
24 hours in . . . An Ghaeltacht
August 16, 2012
The modern-day Gaeltacht is a far cry from horror stories of bad food, tales of lonely students and fear of a language taught by rote – but one full sentence in English and you’re out.
ONE OF THE unwavering constants in Irish life, admissions to Irish college in Gaeltacht areas have taken a hit over the past few years as parents struggle to come up with fees. But for thousands of secondary-school students, those few summer weeks in the Gaeltacht haven’t really changed in decades. Language immersion, romance, céilís, making friends and having the edge when exam time comes are what continue to draw teenagers to the west of Ireland and elsewhere year in year out.
As Connemara scenes go, you can’t rival a straw-laden donkey making its way up the road past Coláiste Uí Chadhain, trailed by a group of students emerging from morning lessons. Along the road between Spiddal and TG4, this Gaeltacht college is two courses into its summer, with 90 students in an old school building that was closed down in the 1970s and is leased every summer from the parish council. In an idyllic setting, with the type of landscape American tourists coo over and small lanes leading down to unspoiled, empty beaches, the pint-pulling raucousness of Galway city feels further than 20 miles.
MORNING
“I always say, ‘don’t start crying or I’ll start crying’.” Even though their stay is temporary, Róisín Ní Chonfhaola gets attached to the students. She’s been a bean an tí for five years. Before that, she was a teacher in Coláiste Uí Chadhain, but decided to become a bean an tí to stay home with her children. Ní Chonfhaola gets up at 7am to prepare for a day of feeding and watering the 14 girls under her roof. (Fourteen has become the magic number for mná tí. Recent cuts mean that the previous subvention, for up to 16 students per house, has been reduced by two.) She gets their breakfast ready and then bakes brown bread. Then she prepares the vegetables for dinner, serves breakfast, and cleans the diningroom, kitchen and bathroom. Bedroom cleaning is left to the students. They go off for their lessons after breakfast and come back at 1pm for the main meal of the day.
At dinnertime, mid-afternoon, her large kitchen is abuzz with students moving on to desserts. Ní Chonfhaola’s desserts are famous throughout Coláiste Uí Chadhain. She has 21 different dessert recipes, one for every day of the three-week course. On the window sill is a collection of thank-you cards from parents, one remarking on her cooking being “much better” than the mother who sent it.
There’s a sense that Ní Chonfhaola puts an extra effort into what she’s providing for the students, far from Gaeltacht-of-yore cuisine horror stories. “It’s hard to get that money together for the parents,” she says. “They’re sending their kids to some place, and they don’t know who they’re going to for three weeks. I used to see parents when I was teaching dropping them off, and they would be worried. I always thought, you know, if they could go somewhere and then just phone the parents and say ‘the bean an tí is so nice and the food is great’, parents feel like they’ve done the right thing for their kids.”
Most of the changes Ní Chonfhaola has seen in the past five years – aside from “more fake tan and more dry shampoo” are monetary. “When I started there was more money in the country. They have less pocket money, but that’s a good thing, they’d only be spending it on sweets and things they don’t need.”
Jennifer Foy (17), from Lucan, one of Ní Chonfhaola’s brood, is spending her fourth summer at the college. “You meet new friends and everyone is very close,” she says in Irish, in the small, one-room building next to the school that functions as a staff room, office and stationary depot. “The teachers and students are friends. No one speaks Irish in Dublin, so this is a chance to do that.”
Ryan Henehan (17), from Loughrea, agrees. “The classes are completely different to school because everyone is involved,” he says in Irish. “The oral test for the Leaving Cert is 40 per cent now. Here, you’re always learning new words. Someone might say ‘give me that thing’, and you can tell them the word they’re looking for, so we learn from each other.”
Both Foy and Henehan are keen to return to the college as assistants, and they both also want to study Irish in university. “I’d like to be an Irish teacher, “ says Henehan. “Before I came to the Gaeltacht I had no interest in Irish, but now I love it. I love learning about Irish history and culture.”
Jean McDonnell, 16, from Maynooth, is also aware of the employment opportunities being a fluent Irish speaker offers. “It’s easier to get a job in a Gaelscoil if you have Irish – that’s what I’ve been thinking of … We definitely have an advantage going back to school. It’s the spoken Irish that we’ll have. Having a bigger vocabulary is good for the oral test because we have new words for things and new ways of saying them,” she says.
Their enthusiasm for the language feels at odds with how Leaving Cert students outside of Gaeltacht areas talk about Irish during the exam year, dismissing its value and questioning the coursework, and how, historically, generation after generation of Irish school-leavers berates the way the language is taught. It’s something the teachers at Coláiste Uí Chadhain are only too aware of. It begs the question: if the Gaeltacht summer school experiment has been so successful at teaching young people Irish for decades, why do none of its teachings bleed back into course work?
“Absolutely,” says Aoife Ní Raincín, a teacher from Galway city, after the morning lessons have ended. “The education system we have now is all based on rote learning. There’s not enough conversation. What we do here is invaluable for all kids, and they should be doing what we do here in secondary schools. They benefit so much from it. When the class is interactive, it’s more effective. It’s also good for their communication skills.”
Her colleague, Darragh MacUnfraidh from Balbriggan, says the intensity of the immersion adds a huge amount to students’ learning. “I suppose one thing that really struck me was one day an inspector came and he just wanted to speak to the kids after they were finished their day’s work here. And he was saying that they were doing four, 40-minute classes a day, six times a week, so by the time he worked it out over the weeks and the intensity of it, it was more or less the same as an extra school year of Irish. So that became apparent to me how effective it can be for anyone who’s engaging with it.”
Back in the teacher’s house a few minutes’ drive from the college, they’re assembling a lunch of ham and cheese sandwiches for themselves. Eoin Ó Riain, originally from Athlone and a secondary-school teacher in Bray, says: “The kids want to be here, which would be different to a normal Irish class.”
“There’s nothing strenuous about it when you compare it to school,” says Ní Raincín. “It’s what we love to do, trying to keep the Irish alive,” says Aisling Ní Chormaic, from Carraroe. “You see the progress at the end of the course as well, you see how they’ve come on, so that’s a huge factor for me as well, because you know you’re doing your job.”
AFTERNOON
Peigín Uí Mharta is taking a break from the 14 boys staying under her roof almost next door to the coláiste. Some are sitting on a wall outside, working out chords on a guitar. Another is pucking a sliotar off the house wall. The rest must be inside, but you wouldn’t know it from how quiet they are. In her kitchen, she’s getting ready to see them off for the sports and games part of their day. “I’ve been doing this for 25 years now, it’s probably time for me to retire,” she says in Irish. Uí Mharta started with girls, but now prefers boys. “They’re more confident these days but they’re still nice. I’ve never thrown anyone out of the house. If you’re nice and respectful, they’re nice and respectful to you.”
She runs through the meals they enjoy – spaghetti Bolognese, chicken curry, sweet and sour, burgers and chips. “I’ll keep doing this for as long as my two feet keep moving. As long as they’ll come, I’ll keep them in my house.”
Irish college is, of course, bigger than the students, the teachers and the bean an tís. It provides a vital source of income to the local economy. Uí Mharta is also acutely aware of the benefits Coláiste Uí Chadhain and its ilk bring to an area that is otherwise underemployed. “It’s absolutely brilliant for here. This year, there wouldn’t be anything here if they weren’t here. The amount of jobs they make; buses, teachers and everything like that. I was talking to a lad there, a bus driver, and he was giving out about it starting again. I said ‘if it wasn’t for them you’d having nothing to do’. He said, ‘you’re right there’. It’s not just about people in one house, it’s good for Connemara; shops, hotels, restaurants and cafes.”
The afternoon is dedicated to sports and activities. For some of the students, it’s sea-kayaking time. The paddles are removed from the corner of the school’s entrance, brushing past posters that declare “tús maith, leath na hoibre”, and they stroll down to the beach where the sky opens up and the Aran Islands push through the haze in the distance. On a fine day, they’ll stay on the beach all afternoon, or head out to one of the islands.
Coláiste Uí Chadhain’s youthful principal is Seán Mac Enrí. Born and raised in the area, his family has been rooted in Connemara for generations. Mac Enrí started working at the coláiste when he was 17, as a teacher’s assistant. That was 17 years ago. He went on to teach here and then became principal, running summer courses for the past decade.
Proud of the pedigree of the college, he’s pragmatic and quite serious, and fully committed to the students’ learning over three weeks. You get the sense that he could hear an English word uttered at 50 paces. One full sentence of English spoken and a student’s parent is called to say it isn’t working out. But his authority is matched with an affection for the students, verbally sparring with their mild back chat, bringing up GAA rivalries, turning a blind eye to a cheeky snog. “They love it here, they really do,” he says, boiling a kettle in the small one-room staff building. “But it’s due to themselves, it’s not that we do anything magical. They create their own fun, their own atmosphere.”
Mac Enrí briefly worked in another Irish college and didn’t enjoy it due to its size (it had around 250 students). “The kids have a great spirit and a great attitude. They’re great to be around to be honest. When you’ve kids coming back year after year, as soon as they step off the bus, you know them already. It’s great to see the same faces coming back. I enjoy it – that’s why I do it.”
The money is “handy” too, although Mac Enrí admits that if it was just for financial gain, he wouldn’t be doing it, preferring to have the summer off, for his two other favourite pursuits, fishing and sailing. “I know for the kids themselves it’s because they really enjoy their time here. They enjoy each other’s company, they enjoy the craic they generate themselves. Of course there’s the romance side of things, it’s a chance to meet boys, it’s a chance to meet girls. Some of them do have a genuine interest in Irish, and that’s why we’ve had former students come back and now working as teachers.” Their parents have a say, naturally. Some, Mac Enrí says, want the best for their kids, others want to pack them off for three weeks but, whatever the motivations, “the total immersion for three weeks does work miracles. I’ve seen new kids arrive on the first day and they couldn’t even put one sentence together and after a week they’re going around talking no problem.”
EVENING
Just after 8pm, the strains of a reel for the Walls of Limerick ring out across nearby fields. The windows are open, offering some respite from teenage sweat. The evening sun is bouncing off the sea and there’s a mist of burning turf in the air. The students stand up, and the basic hall, with wooden floorboards and hand-drawn posters, becomes a spinning blur of rudimentary Irish dancing, Converse and Topshop shorts. “Damhsa nua!” the call goes up from Mac Enrí, who walks them through the steps, which they grasp quickly, inserting their own whoops in time with the music. Harmless flirtations skirt in and around handclaps and turns, and the end of each dance is greeted with wholesome but rapturous applause. Every time “rogha na cailíní” (the girl’s choice of partner) is called before a dance, the cheers are extra loud, and very female.
The underlying purpose of the céilí is to tire them out, and the energy bar is raised when a modern song blares out through the PA, which sees two young men doing “the worm” from one end of the hall to the other, and an extra vigorous céilí conga. They call for an encore and they get it before the break.
Outside, still bright, a young man sings “táimid ag dul shift-áil” to the tune of The Lion Sleeps Tonight and a few couples are conspicuously missing from the volleyball court. They eventually emerge from the back of the school building, “Where. Were. You. Two?,” one friend queries dramatically as Gaeilge, as a particularly sheepish looking couple reappear. “Eh, you were there too!” the young man protests – as Gaeilge again, naturally.
http://www.irishtimes.com/
Welcome for Leaving Certificate Irish results
August 16, 2012
Not only was there an increase in the numbers sitting Higher level Irish in this year’s Leaving Certificate but there was also an increase in the number of A grades awarded to students.
56,000 students will receive their Leaving Certificate results across the country today and there was a substantial 35% increase in the number of students who undertook the maths paper at higher level.
The Department of Education and Skills also announced that there was an 11% increase in the number of students taking the higher level Irish paper.Speaking today Minister for Education and Skills Ruairí Quinn TD said that changes to the oral Irish examination were the main factor in the higher demand for the higher level paper.
According to statistics issued by the State Examinations Commission today, 42,965 students sat an Irish language paper in this year’s exams. Of them 15,937 took the higher level paper with 7.3% of those candidates receiving A1 grades and 11.3% receiving B1 grades.
17.4% of students received an A grade at higher level this year in comparison to 13.9% who received top marks last year.
22,875 students took the paper at ordinary level and 74.2% of these candidates achieved A, B or C grades. Just over 4,000 students took sat the exam at foundation level.
The Minister said that there had been a move away from an emphasis on grammar and increased emphasis on spoken Irish in the new Leaving Certificate examination.
The format for the new oral Irish examination is a joint exam for those sitting higher and ordinary level exams which is worth 40% of the overall mark.
The oral examination itself is made up of four sections and students are awarded marks for the introduction; poetry recitation; an explanation of a series of pictures and conversation with the examiner.
However some groups have expressed concern that the subject is being overly simplified at Leaving Certificate level in a manner which is unchallenging for students attending Irish medium schools in Gaeltacht regions and in Gaelscoileanna.
Foilsithe ar Gaelport.com
Droichead Feirste
August 16, 2012
The ups and downs of results 2012
August 16, 2012
One interesting development to emerge from the figures is the significant decline this year in the number of grind school candidates taking the Leaving Cert. According to this year’s results, biology is the second hardest subject in which to get an honour at higher level.
IT HAS been a good year for higher level maths and Irish but the jury is still out on project maths and science. Certainly, the students who decided to take a chance at higher level maths this year will be delighted. The failure rate is down, despite the extra candidates and anyone who managed a D3 or higher has an extra 25 CAO points to bring to the table. Offers come out on Monday and points are on the up.
One interesting development to emerge from the figures today is the decline in the number of external candidates sitting the exams. Students who attend so-called grind schools are listed as external candidates, as are students who opt to sit the exams as individuals. There were 4,361 external candidates for the Leaving Certificate 2009.
That number dropped to 2,851 this year. A sign of the economic times for parents perhaps?
HAPPY DAYS FOR IRISH
After seeing an alarming decline in the numbers taking higher level Irish over the past few years, 2012 was a very good year. An increase of almost 1,600 students taking the subject at higher level (that’s up by 11 per cent on last year) has reversed the trend completely. Fewer students opted for ordinary and foundation level this year. The change in attitude can be linked to the decision six years ago to double the marks for oral work for students who started secondary school in 2006. The oral Irish exam is now worth 40 per cent of the total mark.
Irish is normally a subject in which students do well. This year is no exception with 17 per cent of higher level students managing an A grade and more than 87 per cent achieving an honour.
RISK PAYS OFF FOR HIGHER LEVEL MATHS STUDENTS
There were plenty of higher level maths students breathing a sigh of relief around the country this morning. There has been an increase of 35 per cent in the numbers taking higher level maths. Many of these students would have opted for the ordinary level paper had it not been for the temptation of 25 extra bonus CAO points for any grade above a D3 in the subject. For them, it was a calculated risk that paid off. Of the 11,131 students that sat the paper, 10,875 passed and the failure rate actually dropped this year. At higher level, almost 10 per cent of students got an A while more than 83 per cent managed the honour. Even if they didn’t get a C, anyone who passed now has those precious bonus points under the belt.
Overall, maths students did pretty well. The failure rate at all three levels is down. Applied maths students saw a huge A rate in their subject with almost 28 per cent of higher level students getting the top grade.
HOW’S PROJECT MATHS LOOKING?
It’s still too early to deliver any substantial verdict on Project Maths, although all students were examined on elements of the new syllabus this year. Supporters of the programme will perhaps be disappointed to see that results from the pilot schools saw a slightly lower honours rate from higher level Project Maths students in comparison to students sitting the mainstream exam. Almost 79 per cent of higher level Project Maths students got an honour in comparison to the 83 per cent of mainstream higher level maths students who managed the same grade.
Ordinary level Project Maths students did better than their mainstream counterparts with almost 76 per cent achieving an A, B or C grade. Just 66 per cent of mainstream ordinary level students matched those grades.
SCIENCE STILL A PROBLEM
Although there has been a boom in demand for science places at third level, it will be another year or two before we see any real effect in the senior cycle. For now, biology remains, by far the most popular science subject with 22,740 sitting the exam in June. Chemistry and agricultural science saw a reasonable increase in interest, but physics and physics and chemistry were slightly down.
High failure rates are a constant problem for those advocating science. The highest failure rates at higher level in this year’s exam all belong to the sciences. Physics and chemistry topped the table with 11 per cent of students failing. Chemistry is next at 9 per cent, agricultural science, biology and physics all have failure rates of between 7 and 9 per cent.
Agricultural science has one of the lower honours rates with just under 66 per cent of students getting an honour at higher level. The other sciences fare somewhat better with honours rates of more than 70 per cent. Physics students do best with almost three quarters of students managing an A, B or C grade.
TALKING IN TONGUES
French is still the dominant language but it is declining slightly year on year. Some 13,720 students opted for it this year. German remains steady at just over 4,300 higher level candidates and just over 2,500 students sat the higher level Spanish paper in June.
Spanish students fared best of the three with an excellent honours rate of over 82 per cent. 15 per cent of students got an A. 77 per cent of higher level German students got an A, B or C grade. Their A rate was similar to that of Spanish students at just over 15 per cent.
French was slightly tougher with a 75 per cent honours rate at higher level and a little under 14 per cent of students managing a higher level A.
Interestingly, Polish is very much on the up. The numbers taking the exam have increased from 541 in 2010 to 707 in 2012. Russian students numbered 251. At least some of these also sat the higher level Irish exam. A timetabling issue meant that such students had to sit biology, Irish and Russian papers all in one day. It probably paid off, however, as three quarters of the students who sat the exam managed an A.
ARTISTIC SOULS
Music was popular this year, up by more than 200 students at higher level to 5,644.
This may or may not be something to do with the spectacular results higher level students are getting in the subject. It has one of the highest honours rates – almost 95 per cent of students got an A, B or C grade this year. The A grades are thinner on the ground but almost 15 per cent of students still managed the A in the higher level paper.
Art, on the other hand, is slightly down. It lost more than 300 students at higher level this year. Numbers are now under 8,000. It’s a tough subject to get an A in. Just 5 per cent of students were awarded an A at higher level this year. Its honours rate is reasonably good at almost 79 per cent
SO YOU THINK YOU KNOW WHAT THE “EASY” HONOURS ARE IN THE LEAVING CERT?
Biology, home economics and geography often fall foul of the “easy” tag at subject choice time while the likes of higher level Irish, maths and history are seen as subjects to be wary of at higher level.
Well according to this year’s results, biology is the second hardest subject in which to get an honour at higher level. Just 71 per cent of students managed an A,B or C grade in the subject this year. Just under three quarters of home economics students got an honour but the A rate in the subject is low at below 8 per cent. Geography, a hugely popular higher level subject (more than 20,000 students sat the paper in June), has an A rate of 8 per cent and an honours rate of 74 per cent.
Higher level Irish, on the other hand, saw 87 per cent of its higher level students get an honour this year. Maths also had a massive honours rate of 83 per cent at higher level, while history, engineering, accounting and applied maths all had A,B,C rates of over 77 per cent.
http://www.irishtimes.com/
Leaving Cert Results: Record numbers get bonus in maths
August 16, 2012
THREE pupils celebrate nine A1s as class of 2012 celebrate the best Leaving Certificate maths results on record — putting students on track for careers in the jobs-rich areas of science and technology
Almost 56,000 candidates receive their Leaving Cert results today — among them three top-scoring candidates who achieved nine A1s each at higher level. More than 11,000 candidates took higher-level maths — an increase of 35pc from 2011 — and of these, a massive 97.7pc achieved grade D or higher, entitling them to 25 bonus CAO points.
It means that as many as one-in-four school leavers who applied to the CAO this year are bringing an extra 25 points each into the calculations when the first round of CAO college offers goes out next Monday.
However, the maths surge will contribute to higher CAO cut-off points in areas such as science and technology.
Points for such courses were expected to rise anyway, driven by the increase in demand from students heeding the advice of Government and employers that these will be the areas providing jobs in the future.
But there will be a downside for students who took ordinary-level maths.
They may now find themselves competing for places on certain courses — where higher-level maths is not an entry requirement — with students who gained the 25-point bonus.
Student performance in some key science subjects was also up this year.
It is not only maths higher-level students who have special cause to celebrate today.
In another significant feature of the results, the numbers taking higher-level Irish rose by 11pc compared with 2011.
This is linked to the change in the marking system, with 40pc of marks now available for the oral part of the exam, a move introduced to encourage better take-up at this level.
Education Minister Ruairi Quinn led the congratulations to the class of 2012 and he, along with school managers principals, teachers and parents’ representatives encouraged students to consider all their options and take advantage of the supports available in planning their next step.
The spectacular increase in achievement in higher-level maths will be the big talking point of Leaving Certificate 2012.
A record 22pc of maths candidates opted for higher level, up from 16pc last year. The previous high was about 19pc in 1997. However, while the proportion of A grades was down, the number of Bs was up.
Employers, who clamoured for years for the introduction of bonus points as an incentive to students to study a key subject for the new economy, welcomed the results but warned there was no room for complacency
They pointed to other areas that now had to be tackled, including achieving a greater take-up in science subjects as well as foreign languages.
Paul Sweetman of IBEC high technology division, ICT Ireland, said the increase in students taking higher-level maths, coupled with the growth in demand for science and technology courses, sent a strong signal to the global technology community that Ireland would remain a key location for growth and investment.
Tony Donohoe, IBEC head of education policy, said the increase vindicated the decision of the higher-education institutions to award bonus points. But he warned that bonus points were not a panacea for improving standards and the single most important element in improving the level of maths attainment in schools was the quality of teaching.
“This issue has become even more critical with the introduction of the new Project Maths curriculum, which requires a deeper understanding of the application of mathematical concepts by both teachers and students alike,” he said .
www.independent.ie/
