THE NUMBER OF Leaving Certificate students sitting the Higher Level papers in Maths may reach an all-time record low this week, after the exams body received fewer applications for the Honours paper than ever before.
Details compiled by the State Examinations Commission and obtained by the Irish Times show that only 10,457 students – or 18.8 per cent of the total Leaving Cert class of 2011 – are registered to take the Higher Level paper.
Given the numbers of students who tend to opt for the Ordinary Level paper on the day of the exam, that number would be set to fall further – potentially falling below the all-time record of 8,388 set in 2007.
Last year 8,390 sat the honours paper – just two higher than the 2007 record – while 8,420 took the higher level paper in 2009, and 8,510 in 2008. By comparison, the numbers sitting the ordinary level paper have ballooned from 35,808 to 37,903 between 2008 and 2010, and could rise further this year.
The pilot Project Maths syllabus, which is geared at producing an “enhanced student experience” and is taught in lieu of the traditional maths programe – is also struggling to find students at higher level.
Of the 24 schools offering the pilot course, Seán Flynn writes, only 21 per cent have registered for the Honours paper – again, a number which could fall on the day of the exam.
Among the students sitting the Leaving Cert this year will be 66 students from Libya, who will be sitting the exams in either Ireland or Malta.
The students are from a school in Tripoli which has offered the exams since 1997, but students have left the country given the political unrest there.
Read Seán Flynn on maths in the Irish Times >
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