Minister for Education Mary Hanafin has pledged to overhaul the Leaving Certificate maths curriculum over the next few years after concern was expressed at the high failure rate by students in this year's test.
Today's Leaving Cert results revealed almost 5,000 students or 10 per cent have failed maths at either ordinary, higher or foundation level, making many ineligible for third-level courses.
Ms Hanafin admitted she was concerned about both the decrease in numbers taking maths and the failure rate at ordinary level. The new maths exam proposed by the National Council for Curriculum Assessment, will have a business maths and a science maths option to better suit students' individual skills and talents.
There was widespread concern from industry and the science sectors at the high failure rate in today's Leaving Certificate results, with bodies such as Engineers Ireland calling for an overhaul of the maths curriculum.
Minister for Education Mary Hanafin
The Minister said today some students would have been better off taking foundation level maths instead of ordinary level.
"What has been happening is that some students have been taking pass maths but in fact they'd have been better off taking foundation level maths. But they felt they had to take the pass in order to get a course in college. There should be more encouragement for foundation so that students are pitching at the right level," she said.
The Minister said the decrease in the last two years in the numbers taking honours maths had a wider economic issue because of the need for engineers and computer experts.
"Where that has to be addressed is in two ways; one is encouraging students to take honours to junior cert and there is a real issue for schools there because if they don't take honours at junior cert they have no hope of doing it at leaving cert," she said.
"The second thing would be for the teachers to read the Chief Examiner's report because he highlights all the problems that the students are showing. They're showing that if they don't have basic algebra well then they can't go on and do advanced algebra and there is a lot of lessons to be learnt from the actual teaching of maths as well as from the learning of maths, added Ms Hanafin.
"The National Council for Curriculum Assessment has come forward with proposals which will be introduced over the next two to three years - a new leaving cert maths course which will allow for a business option and a science option.
"You'll still need high quality, high level mathematical skills but they might be more suited to your actual talents. In the meanwhile we need to look at the recommendations from the chief examiner as to how we actually teach and how we learn."
Minister for Education Mary Hanafin
The Minister said there are students who are very good at science and students who are very good at business.
"Why do they both have to do the same maths paper when you can have a little twist on it that can make it more accessible?"
Reacting to today's results, Engineers Ireland reiterated its call for the introduction of bonus CAO points for higher level maths as an immediate action to motivate students.
Denis McGrath, chartered engineer and Engineers Ireland's registrar, said: "Maths is an essential course requirement for engineering and engineers will play a key role in the development of Ireland's knowledge economy. It is obvious that incentives need to be introduced in the immediate term to encourage more students to take higher level maths."
Labour Party Education spokeswoman Jan O'Sullivan said that the 12 per cent failure rate in maths was "almost exactly the same as last year, indicating that no progress had been made despite the concerns expressed over recent years by employers".
Results in science-based subjects are also disappointing with only 7 per cent securing honours in physics, 8 per cent in chemistry and 23 per cent in biology. The failure rates at ordinary level are also high, with over 15 per cent failing chemistry and biology.
While no student matched last year's achievement of nine A1s, 11 achieved 8 A1s.
However, the Irish language has experienced what has been described as "a strong revival," with more than 1,000 additional students at higher level and 83 per cent scoring honours, one of the highest in the entire Leaving Cert.
History has attracted 1,000 extra students with the introduction of a revised course.