 |
| By Niall Murray Education Correspondent |
With the rollout of the Project Maths syllabus to every school almost complete, all except 23 schools (which piloted it ahead of the rest of the country) were examined on four of the five strands this year.
The 54% who did higher level maths is up from 52% a year ago, and from just under half of all students in 2012.
“As increasing the uptake of maths at higher level is one of the explicit aims of Project Maths, this indication of a greater uptake among the overall candidature is to be welcomed,” said the State Examinations Commission (SEC).
It has sent results out to 60,327 students, who will collect them at schools, education centres and online today, with overall numbers up by less than 1% on the 2013 figure.
Among them are 878 re-entrants to education, who entered through schemes such as the Vocational Training Opportunities Scheme and Back to Education Initiative — a figure that is just nine less than a year ago, when they also represented 1.5% of total numbers, but down from 1.7% in 2012 and 1.9% in 2011.
Also Read: IIT-JAM Online Test Series Now Start
As well as in maths, numbers doing the higher level in Irish also continue to climb, perhaps aided by the rising numbers taking the optional oral Irish test.
From just under half of all those doing Irish in 2011, they now make up 54% of 52,801 getting a result in the subject today.
The increase in participation in the oral test is linked to the increase in the marks for oral Irish at Leaving Certificate, from 25% to 40%, in 2012.
The wider ability range of students taking higher level maths may be behind a fall in the proportion getting As, from 12% last year to below 11%.
Similarly, the 73% who got an honours (A, B or C) grade is down from 2013, when over 78% did so.
The SEC data show that a similar 54% of the 2,465 students at the 23 pilot schools, which are first to do their entire Junior Certificate maths exams on the new syllabus, opted for higher level.
Among those 1,334 candidates, 10% got As and 27% got Bs — both slightly lower than proportions getting those grades nationally. But slightly higher numbers with Cs mean their 71.2% with honours is only slightly lower than the 73% of all maths students with an A, B or C.
As well as a new syllabus, the Project Maths programme has a different exam format, where numbers of questions is not known beforehand, varying from year to year and between levels. Similarly, the type, length, difficulty or marks for questions or sections are not pre-specified, but a suggested maximum time is given for each question to help students manage their time in the exams.
Although the new syllabus may be a partial factor in more students taking higher level maths for Leaving Certificate, that increase is mainly the result of bonus points for honours maths for college entry.
Since 2012, anyone with a D3 or higher in Leaving Certificate maths at higher level receives 25 extra points in the Central Applications Office (CAO) system used by third-level institutions, prompting numbers attempting it to jump from 16% in 2011 to over 27% this year.
The increase in numbers taking higher level maths at Junior Certificate may also be a factor in the drop in As awarded at ordinary level today, from nearly 10% to 6%.
But, at the same time, fewer students failed maths at this level.
Also encouraging is a further move away from foundation level, the 3,532 who took the paper in June being almost 900 fewer than in 2011, and 80% of them getting an A, B or C.
“It would seem that the top end of the traditional cohort for this paper has begun to opt in greater numbers for ordinary level, which is a welcome development,” said the SEC.
The proportions of students with honours grades in higher level English and science are unchanged, but are slightly up on last year for geography — at 72% and down slightly in history — to 70%.
Resource: Uptake of higher level mathematics still rising
No comments:
Post a Comment