Should there be bonus points for maths and physics in the Leaving Certificate?
NO:
All second-level students start with a common first-year curriculum, which covers the core subjects of Irish, English, maths, plus a number of other subjects. Towards the end of first year, two processes take place. Students drop a number of subjects, based on the fact that you cannot take all of the subjects sampled in first year on to Junior Cert level.
Secondly, students are streamed into ordinary level and higher level in maths and Irish, based on their ability. This streaming leads to a minority of students taking these subjects at higher level. Between the beginning of second year and the date of the Leaving Cert, many students will drop back to ordinary level, due to the degree of difficulty they experience in maths or Irish.
Nowhere in this equation, and most certainly not when students select their subjects and levels at the beginning of second year, are points a determining factor. Points only come into play when students begin to consider their CAO choices in the middle of their Leaving Cert programme, and by then decisions on subjects and levels are long over.
What, then, is the argument in favour of bonus points for higher-level maths and science subjects in an era when the expansion of third-level options is making points less significant? Is it that they will encourage students to apply for courses where bonus points apply, as suggested by Minister for Education and Science Mary Hanafin?
I do not believe that such a policy would have any effect in attracting additional applicants to disciplines such as engineering.
The number of students applying for honours Bachelor's degree programmes in engineering, which require a minimum of a grade C or higher on a higher-level maths paper, is determined by the pool of potential applicants, which is set at the end of first year in secondary school, when those students capably of studying maths at higher level are identified.
In 2007, the number of students taking higher-level maths in the Leaving Cert was 8,388, of which 80 per cent achieved a grade C or higher. This left a pool of a little more than 6,000 students who were eligible for level-eight engineering programmes. As more than half of these 6,000 students were women, who form a small proportion of engineering applicants, the number of potential male applicants was about 3,000.
To marginally increase the points score of these 6,000 candidates will have no effect in increasing their interest in engineering programmes. Any such increase would simply marginally increase the points score of every applicant, and increase the entry points accordingly. It would not bring the engineering faculties any additional applicants, which I presume would be the whole point of the exercise.
How then do you increase the interest of students in engineering, science and technology programmes?
The answer is relatively simple. You make the experience of students in these subject areas more interesting. You revise the maths curriculum to introduce more applied maths throughout the entire junior and senior cycles, from first year onwards. This process is already under way through the work of the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NCCA).
When students see the benefit of the application of maths to their own lives, they will be motivated to study maths to the highest level of their ability. I have already seen the benefits of the new science curriculum in the junior cycle, as students get to work in modernised laboratories and conduct the experiments themselves, rather than merely observe their teachers.
The number of my own students at Oatlands College, who having studied the new junior-cycle science curriculum and are currently taking chemistry and physics for the Leaving Cert, has doubled in the past two years. Why? Because they enjoyed the experience of studying the revised subject in the junior cycle.
The answer to increasing our students' interest in careers in science, engineering and technology is to make their experiences of these disciplines interesting and exciting throughout their entire school education. Thankfully, this process is well under way through the work of the NCCA and the Department of Education and Science.
Let us have the patience to wait a few years to see the benefits of these new curriculums, rather than try to use the points system to motivate students in directions they have lost interest in.
Brian Mooney is a teacher and career guidance counsellor and writes the College Choice column for The Irish Times.
