Tomorrow the points race will be over for all of the Third Level Education aspirants as the first round CAO offers are issued. For some it will bring great joy and for others heartbreaking disappointment as there will inevitably be those who will miss out by a few measly points on the dream career path of their choosing (or of someone else’s choosing – hey cut the cynicism – Ed..)
Much focus in the media at present is on the poor performance levels in the Maths and Science subjects and consequently the poor numeric / problem solving skills so sought after by the IT Recruitment Sector. As a First Class Honours Civil Engineer, let me dwell for a moment on the teaching of Maths in our Hallowed Halls of Education.
It used to be that you had to have an honour in Maths to do Engineering and in my day it was double points for an honour in Maths. This made putting the time and significant effort into getting a good score in Maths an absolutely worthwhile endeavour. I am delighted to see that our new Minister for Education, Rory Quinn (who has made an excellent start in his new portfolio) is considering bring back double points for the honour in Maths – lets face it, the workload required for Honour Maths is really the work of two subjects.
This Carrot & Stick approach is all well and good, but the area that really needs absolute scrutiny is WHO is teaching the Maths and HOW is it being thought. The HOW is being addressed somewhat by the piloting of the new Applied Maths course in some schools, but this will take some time before full integration into the full Syllabus and is as yet an unproven course of action.
The WHO is the really scary bit – the qualifications of some of those who are teaching the Maths to our children is currently being investigated – incredibly our Dept of Education can not give a straight answer as to who’s go the necessary qualifications and who doesn’t. Engineers Ireland (formerly IEI) have been suggesting for a couple of years that Engineers are eminently qualified to teach Maths and have been running grind courses for a couple of years in that magnificent building of theirs down on Clyde Road.
Why are Engineers so qualified to teach Maths ? Firstly, they have navigated their way through the mediocre system (some good teachers, some awful) to achieve a level of excellence in the subject. Of greater importance is their appreciation and understanding that without Maths, things cannot be designed, constructed, manufactured or invented. The result of this practical experience is that Engineers could engender a love and passion for Maths and the Sciences in our young students.
The problem with the current system is that Teacher will invariably move at breakneck pace to keep the top 5% in the class delivering great results for the school and the other 95% are left scratching their heads in total bewilderment and faced with either getting grinds from their Engineer Daddies or simply dropping to Pass level, with very little resistance from Teacher who is too busy grooming 5-Star Jonny for the school results photo every August.