The former Minister for Education and Science, Batt O'Keeffe, introduced the project mathematics initiative in 2008 which was first piloted in 24 schools but has since been mainstreamed in all secondary schools across the country since September 2010. This initiative was supported by a national programme of professional development for teachers which began in 2009. While it is early days, the emerging results are positive with 18.5% taking higher level mathematics in those schools where project mathematics was piloted compared to 16% nationally. I welcome the Government's commitment to this initiative.

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