Dramatic fall in number failing maths in Leaving Certificate
August 16, 2012
Failure rate falls 20% as record numbers take higher paper
Education Editor IN A reversal of recent trends, the number failing maths in the Leaving Certificate has fallen dramatically, while record numbers opted to take the subject at higher level.
While the number failing maths this year is still relatively high at close to 4,000, this is down by 20 per cent on recent years.
Last night, Minister for Education Ruairí Quinn welcomed the record number of students who took higher level maths in the exam – 22 per per cent of all maths students took the higher paper, compared to 16 per cent last year. Remarkably, only 256 students of the 11,000-plus who took higher maths failed the paper.
This year, students were examined for the first time on some elements of the new Project Maths course, which has been criticised over “dumbing down’’ by some teachers.
Last night, some critics alleged examiners were “pressurised’’ to deliver better grades in maths. But the State Exams Commission strongly rejected these claims, issuing a lengthy statement detailing the marking process.
In the Dáil last month, Fine Gael TD Mary Mitchell O’Connor said she had “been informed by a corrector of the Leaving Certificate honours mathematics paper that in one of the 75-mark questions … the marking system has been changed drastically because the results are so dismal’’.
Exam results published this morning also show a marked increase in the numbers taking Irish at higher level. The other striking feature is the fall-off in the number of exam candidates from grind schools, down over 20 per cent.
The sharp increase in numbers taking higher level maths comes after colleges agreed to Mr Quinn’s request to offer bonus CAO points for those taking the paper. This year, the 10,875 students with a grade D3 or better in higher level maths will secure a bonus 25 CAO points. This means they will enjoy a considerable advantage over the 35,000 students who took the ordinary level paper.
The CAO will publish its first round of college offers next Monday. Over 32,000 places are available in Level 8 or higher degree courses.
It is expected the bonus points system will lead to a significant increase in points, especially for highdemand courses in such areas as science, technology and agriculture.
Career experts say the scattergun impact of the bonus points system could also see increased points even for areas such as arts and business.
The 11 per cent increase in the number taking higher level Irish is being linked to the new marking scheme that awards 40 per cent to the oral exam. Overall, the number taking higher level Irish increased by almost 5 per cent to 37 per cent.
Other main features of the results include:
Three students secured nine A1 grades, while 10 gained eight A1s. In all, 150 students scored a “perfect’’ Leaving with six A1s or better;
Failure rates remained high in several ordinary level subjects, including chemistry (16.6 per cent), biology (13.5 per cent) and physics (10.6 per cent);
Failure rates were also high in several language subjects at ordinary level, including Italian (10.3 per cent), French (6.9 per cent) and Spanish (7.2 per cent);
Among the main subjects, music is the “easiest’’ honour at higher level. Over 95 per cent of students secured an A, B or C;
Biology and business are the “hardest” honours, with an A, B or C rate of 71 per cent.
Peter O’Neill, president of the American Chamber of Commerce Ireland, which represents more than 600 US companies in Ireland, praised the bonus points system.
“Students who traditionally would have studied ordinary level maths seeking an ‘A’ grade have pushed themselves into the higher level stream and achieved honours at the higher level. This is a welcome development,” he said.
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Clonakilty Gaelscoil plans approved
August 10, 2012
A West Cork Gaelscoil will offer classes in a purpose-built school for the first time in 18 years following planning approval by An Bord Pleanála.
Staff at Gaelscoil Chloch na gCoillte (Clonakilty) have taught pupils in a variety of makeshift classroom locations including a disco, a former Church of Ireland teachers’ residence, a mobile home, a holiday home and 29 prefab buildings since its inception in 1994.
The Department of Education secured a four-acre site at Fernhill Road in the town purchased from Cork County Council f or ¤675,000 in 2007.
Planning for a 16-classroom school was granted by Clonakilty town council last April but local objectors appealed the decision on grounds of road safety, visibility and parking. The planning appeals board granted planning permission this week, 18 weeks after the town council’s decision.
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New school patrons announced
July 26, 2012
The patrons for 14 new secondary school were announced by Minister for Education Ruairí Quinn this morning, including one in West Dublin under the responsibility of Educate Together.
It is the first time the multi-denominational patron has been given responsibility for a post-primary school. The school will be based in Blanchardstown. Educate Together will also share the patronage of another school in Drogheda Co Louth with the County Louth Vocational Education Committee (VECs).
A second post-primary school will also come under the patronage of the same VEC and four other VECs in Dublin, Galway, Kildare, Meath and Cork will act as patrons to eight schools.
A Church of Ireland patronage post-primary will be opened in Greystones, Co Wicklow and Le Chéile Schools Trust, a Catholic organisation, will have responsibility for a school in Mulhuddart, Dublin 15. Two new schools in Balbriggan and Dundrum in Dublin will be under the patronage of Gaelscoileanna patronage body An Foras Pátrúnachta.
Four of the new schools, all VEC, will open in September 2013 and 10 will open the following September.
Making the announcement, Mr Quinn said in deciding on patronage he “was particularly conscious of taking into account the clear parental demand for plurality and diversity of patronage”.
“I am particularly pleased that Educate Together will be patron in one school and co-patron in a second school, given that Educate Together was officially recognised by me as a second level patron just one year ago,” he said.
“I am also pleased that for the first time in a generation a new Catholic and a new Church of Ireland voluntary secondary school are to open. This demonstrates clearly that I and the Department are committed to diversity of ethos and respect for parental choice.”
IRISH TIMES
‘Lagmhisneach’
July 18, 2012
Saving the Gaeltacht
July 9, 2012
A chara, – Your editorial on the plight of the Gaeltacht (June 25th) appeared in the wake of a specially convened congress held in Dublin on June 23rd and organised by the INTO to ballot members on a strategy to support the plight of small schools.
Changes to the staffing schedule for schools with four teachers or fewer, introduced by this Government in its December budget, have been seen by many communities as a threat to the future well-being and viability of their local schools.
Schools that serve the Gaeltacht communities are most at risk. One of the speakers at the congress spoke of her frustration and sadness as she locked the doors of her Donegal Gaeltacht school for the final time last week. The pupils in that school will complete their primary education in a neighbouring school in which Irish is not the primary language of instruction.
This situation is replicated in many Gaeltacht communities. The long-term effect of these closures will be detrimental to both the language and culture of this island. At a time when Irish is being studied by students in university campuses throughout the world, could we as a nation live with the shame of letting it become a “dead language” here at home?
Tír gan teanga, tír gan anam.
– Is mise,
Colin Quigley, Steeple Manor, Trim, Co Meath.
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EU investment bank to lend State €100m for schools
July 9, 2012
Minister for Finance Michael Noonan has said he hopes the European Investment Bank will commit ¤1 billion a year to Ireland in future, following the announcement of a €100 million loan for school buildings.
EIB president Werner Hoyer, who met a series of senior Government figures in Dublin yesterday, said the money for the school-building programme would make a “small but not insignificant contribution” to job creation here.
The EIB is the European Union’s bank and its shareholders are the 27 member states, which have jointly subscribed its capital. Mr Noonan said the bank had provided Ireland with very significant investment funding in the past and he hoped that could be expanded.
“At present they’re committed to about a half a billion a year, if you could get it flowing freely, and over a period of time that adds up. If we could double that it would have an impact on the infrastructure, it would make our economy more productive and it would lead to the kind of job creation we need,” he said.
The “confidence-building” impact of the investment in school buildings should not be underestimated at a time when people were “beginning to feel a little better about the economy”, he added.
“If there’s a lot of schools being built all over the country you have activity again in the towns and villages, and it’s activity that people can identify with because it’s the schools their kids will be attending,” he said.
Mr Hoyer, speaking after a meeting with Mr Noonan and Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform Brendan Howlin yesterday morning, said the EIB was committed to building on its strong partnership with Ireland. Mr Hoyer said he thought the school-building projects could begin quickly.
“Most of these things can be done immediately because the need is there,” he said.
Mr Howlin said the Government was anxious to secure cofunding of school buildings and the education sphere generally, as well as roads and other infrastructure. “What’s announced today is extremely important in and of itself but it’s part of, I hope, a series of much bigger announcements,” he said.
Taoiseach Enda Kenny later said the European Council decision last week had allowed for a further “injection” of finance into the EIB, “which leverages up extra finance for budgets that are economically viable and sustainable”.
Minister for Education Ruairí Quinn said the €100 million loan would support his department’s capital investment programme. He announced details in March of 275 school- building projects worth €1.5 billion to begin by 2016. The EIB loan would assist in funding this investment, he said.
The loan will be used in the construction and upgrading of 35 primary and 12 second-level schools around the country, with construction work expected to be finished by 2014.
Mr Quinn said the loan would prove “immensely beneficial” in enabling implementation of the programme in the most cost-effective manner for the taxpayer.
The loan will be managed by the National Treasury Management Agency on behalf of the State.
www.irishtimes.com
Deireadh le samhail
July 4, 2012
Foras na Gaeilge ditches funding plan
July 2, 2012
Cross-Border Irish-language body Foras na Gaeilge has abandoned its controversial “new funding model” following a board meeting in Gaoth Dobhair, Co Donegal.
The body said on Friday it would not proceed with the “new funding model” but would instead try to find an alternative solution to “restructuring” the Irish-language sector while “co-operating” with other language groups.
The announcement marks a major reversal in policy for Foras na Gaeilge, which had been promoting the proposal as an alternative to the core funding of Irish organisations.
It wanted to replace the current practice of giving financial aid to established organisations to carry out work and introduce a scheme-based system which would have seen interested parties tender for projects.
Language-planning experts and the groups affected had criticised the plan as unworkable.
Foras na Gaeilge has now decided to give grants of €6.7 million to groups until June 2013 while it looks at other possibilities to replace the abandoned funding arrangement.
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A parental poll on school patronage
June 29, 2012
Sir, –
Regarding the proposed new school patronage, I am very surprised our Minister for Education has decided that no public meeting will be allowed and that town hall meetings and other activi ties which might whip up a “media frenzy” are to be prohibited (Seán Flynn, Home News June 21st).
How can a Minister deny parents their right to meet and discuss such an important matter? It would appear that he believes parents are not capable of calm and rational discussion concerning their own children.
It is sad to think that parents are held in such low esteem by our Minister for Education. I would have expected that this type of diktat is more reminiscent of former communist regimes rather than a modern democracy.
It would also be very interesting to hear from the present school patrons as to whether or not they agree with this approach.
– Yours, etc,
Gerry Curran,
Manor Kilbride, Blessington, Co Wicklow
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Irish language media make a Rí-rá about going online
June 27, 2012
A new online media resource for Irish speakers – Meon Eile (meoneile.ie) – has gone live.
The site, launched in Belfast on Monday, aims to give browsers regular written news, sport, music and cultural features as well as videos in Irish. Meon Eile’s producer Sinéad Ingoldsby said they intended to produce high-quality material and “interesting stories on a user-friendly site” to cater for Irish speakers on the web.
Raidió Rí-Rá (rrr.ie), an Irish-language station which plays chart music for young people, also announced Monday that they would begin to broadcast live on the Digital Audio Broadcasting (DAB) platform in Dublin and Waterford this Sunday, in Cork and Limerick by the end of 2012 and nationally after that.
As well as being online, Raidió Rí-Rá is available on iPhone, Nokia and Android phones through the TuneIn application.
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