THERE HAVE BEEN calls made for the State Examinations Commission and Education Minister to assess the fairness of this year’s Leaving Certificate higher level maths exam after paper two was deemed ‘a disgrace’ by a textbook author.

Commenting a day after Paper Two upset a number of students and teachers, Sinn Féin’s spokesperson for education Seán Crowe said changes to the exam had presented “significant difficulties”.

“There has been a good deal of criticism of the exam with one teacher, Brendan Gildea, saying that the majority of candidates he spoke to were devastated after sitting the test. This is a very worrying situation,” said Crowe.

The State Examinations Commission and Education Minister Ruairí Quinn must seriously assess the criticism levelled at the exam and take steps to improve its content and fairness.

This year’s paper examined students as part of the new Project Maths syllabus but some teachers had issues with question seven on statistics, stating it did not assess what the candidates had actually learned.

Gildea, a co-author of the New Concise Maths project maths textbook, labelled the exam ‘a disgrace’ while being interviewed on RTÉ’s Drivetime.

However, there was a mixed reaction to the paper among students on Twitter: