Madam, – Early June, and that hardy perennial the “not enough students taking honours maths” is yet again in full bloom. We should not condemn students who choose not to do honours maths, rather they should be commended for their excellent grasp of a complicated (and perverse) points system. Their objective is to qualify for third-level education.
The Minister has many options to encourage more candidates to take the higher level examination:- for instance by according students who fail the honours paper by a small margin a pass at the lower level; or by allowing honours students to sit the lower-level paper before the main exam period, possibly even the previous year.
Are these solutions too simple? – Yours, etc,