Sir, – Further to Prof Brian MacCraith's comments that students are increasingly unable to cope with mathematics at third level and that primary and post-primary students find problem-solving difficult ("Maths simply fails to add up for third-level students", December 9th), we could learn a lot from Singapore, Korea and Taiwan. They attract and retain the top mathematics graduates and postgraduates into post-primary teaching. In Ireland, the best mathematicians are, understandably, attracted to the financial and technology industries, where only a couple of years out of college they can make three of four times the salary of what they would earn a secondary teacher. The Department of Education is bidding for talent in a hypercompetitive market and the demand for mathematics graduates is only going to get higher. Until it is prepared to truly compete, we will continue to see a shortfall in quality at second level and students requiring extra support at third level. – Yours, etc,
Dr MICHAEL J
McCARTHY,
Castleknock, Dublin 15.
Sir, – I beg to differ with Robert Irwin (December 10th) when he suggests that arts graduates do not need mathematics. I recall a young archeologist friend who was on a dig with graduates of many prestigious English universities. The group needed to calculate the height of a building without climbing to the top, using just the shadow and its angle. Stumped by the problem, her colleagues were astonished when she calmly solved the trigonometric equation. Saying arts graduates don't need maths is like saying engineers don't need English. – Yours, etc,
Dr KEVIN T RYAN,
Limerick.