Fewer Leaving Certificate students to sit honours maths

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Posted on 2009-06-02 in

Fewer Leaving Certificate students to sit honours maths

Fewer Leaving Certificate students to sit honours maths

THE proportion of Leaving Certificate students set to attempt the higher level maths papers this week has fallen below one-in-five, despite efforts to get more people taking the exams. The State Examinations Commission (SEC) has registered 55,383 people to sit the Leaving Certificate, which begins at schools and colleges on Wednesday, up almost 4% on the 53,345 candidates a year ago. The actual number of students who went on to sit the exams in 2008 was 52,143, as around 1,000 people do not go ahead with sitting their papers each year.

Among almost 53,000 Leaving Certificate students predicted to take maths papers this Friday and on the following Monday, just 10,533 (19.9%) have indicated they will be taking the higher level paper. This compares to 21% of candidates whose schools told the commission before Easter last year and in 2007 that they would be sitting the higher level paper.

Each year hundreds of students change their minds between that stage and the exams in June and opt to take the ordinary level exam, with less than 17% taking the higher level papers a year ago.

In response to the difficulties faced by students with the higher level standards and consistently high failure rates in ordinary level maths, the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment has piloted Project Maths in a number of schools, designed to change the way students learn maths concepts. The revised syllabus is set to be rolled out to all second level schools from autumn 2010, and examined for the Leaving Certificate from 2012 and in the Junior Certificate a year later.

While the number of students entered for the Leaving Certificate has been on the rise since 2006, fewer are expected to sit the Junior Certificate again this year, with exams also starting on Wednesday. The SEC has registered just over 56,500 Junior Certificate candidates, down from 57,000 a year ago and around 58,000 in 2006 and 2007.

A further 3,269 school leavers are set to begin the Leaving Certificate Applied exams this week, roughly in line with the numbers taking this option over the last four years. Their results and grades in the traditional Leaving Cert will be issued on August 12, with Junior Cert results expected in school in mid-September.