Bonus points for maths
Leading industry groups in Ireland often highlight the relatively poor maths and science education of school leavers in Ireland. One oft-called-for solution is to increase the number of points available at Leaving Certificate level for Higher Maths. It is generally held, and I tend to agree, that Higher Maths is a more difficult and time-consuming subject than most others in the Leaving. Increasing the number of points available for it can only help to incentivise students to study it, and reward their effort.
The Irish Times today reports that from 2012 UCD is planning on doing just that. This has been called for by Government, but rather than mandate it, the Government has left it up to the Universities to respond voluntarily. UCD is the first such institute to do so. From the UCD press release:
The UCD Academic Council today took the decision to introduce bonus CAO points for Leaving Certificate Higher Level Mathematics for a trial period of four years, commencing 2012.
The precise scheme for the award of additional points will be decided in the coming weeks following consultation with other universities and the objective is to have a single scheme for all those institutions awarding bonus points.
Hopefully, the University sector will put in place a unified scheme that will genuinely incentivise Leaving Cert pupils to tackle Higher Maths. While there are some subjects and topics that one can revisit in maturity (History and English come to mind, for example), the more technical subjects (Maths, Physics) need to be studied and understood early in one’s education.
It’ll be interesting to see how this develops, and whether such an incentivisation will really have the desired effect.
