“Students are picking maths for the bonus points, they’re not picking maths in order to study maths”
The 25 bonus points awarded to Leaving Certificate students for passing higher-level maths are lowering educational standards, according to some secondary school teachers.
Upcoming changes are set to see class projects made part of the Leaving Cert assessment, but attention is now turning to other cogs in the system that may need updating.
The bonus points for higher-level maths were introduced in 2012 with the hopes of improving students’ mathematical abilities.
However, Dr. Niamh O’Meara recently wrote in The Irish Times that this initiative has failed to do what was intended and should be scrapped.
Secondary school English teacher, Conor Murphy echoed this and told Newstalk that the policy reflects deeper issues within the Leaving Cert and CAO system.
He believes that students are now choosing Leaving Cert subjects based on what can garner them the most points and not what they actually would like to pursue after school.
“As somebody who did ordinary level maths and then repeated at higher level maths, my perspective of this is quite personal,” he said.
“The bonus points are indicative of the problems with the Leaving Cert in totality and that is the CAO, which undermines education at a fundamental level.
“[Students are] picking maths for the bonus points, they’re not picking maths in order to study maths, in order to use maths later on in their lives or to enjoy maths,” he said.
As an English teacher, he said he finds this mindset particularly worrying: “I’m going to be teaching the new drama, film and theatre studies course next year and I’m trying to promote it around the school.
“And the first question the students are asking and the parents are asking is, ‘How easy will it be to get points?’”
Mr. Murphy suggested that this points-driven approach has led to weaker students taking higher-level maths, which in turn affects classroom standards.
“Some classes are weaker than others and you slow down the pace in order to make sure [everyone] comes along,” he explained.
“If that’s happening all the time in a subject like maths, then obviously the standard is going to diminish substantially as the years go by – and these might not be reflected at all in the grades at the end of the day.”
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