Batt O'Keeffe (Cork North West, Fianna Fail)

Obviously Project Maths and the roll-out of the new curriculum are extremely important. The circumstances relating to a new primary level mathematics curriculum has been very fruitful. Rolling out Project Maths into the secondary level and giving mathematics teachers the associated in-service training are fundamental. There has been low participation in mathematics at the higher level. The uptake at higher level was 17% in 2008 when we would expect an uptake of 20% to 25%. Obviously that is what we are trying to achieve. It is also important to note that we have the junior science curriculum. We have the discover science and engineering programme. We have a promotion in terms of understanding mathematics itself and the sciences in general. We hope to increase participation levels through curricular reform. I recently met the president of Stanford University, which feeds into the Silicon Valley firms. The number of people taking mathematics as a subject is also a problem for that university. The attractiveness of mathematics as a subject is a worldwide phenomenon.

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