Mr. Barry Slattery:

I will respond here. I thank the Senator for the question. It is not surprising that bonus points have become such an important point of discussion throughout the consultation. The point to reiterate is that it is not within the remit of the council to advise on this. The council, therefore, has not had an opportunity to discuss the issue. It is not just difficult but is impossible for us to offer a council position when it has not had an opportunity to deliberate on this as yet. There are probably a range of measures that would need to be considered but bonus points is something that has entered the mix early, possibly because it was something that was offered in 2012 to encourage uptake in higher-level mathematics.

I will make a number of points on this without making any judgment on the effectiveness of the initiative. The measure was introduced with two goals in mind. One was to increase uptake and the other was to improve the mathematical competence of students. It is quite clear from the data that it has improved uptake but there has not been a formal evaluation of the initiative. There are two pieces of research that I am familiar with that have looked at the issue. There are some unintended consequences as a result of introducing the bonus points for higher-level mathematics. All of that would need to be considered carefully.

As to the Senator’s initial question on whether a decision should be made quickly, we need to be very cautious about making decisions quickly in matters like this.