Mary Mitchell O'Connor (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)

I thank the Minister for being in the Chamber.

Project Maths has been hailed as the answer to the below average standing of Irish 15 years olds in the OECD's Programme for International Student Assessment rankings of international student performance. However, major questions and doubts have been raised about this new Project Maths subject.

I am concerned that pupils are not being taught basic mathematical concepts. I am concerned that we are giving 25% extra to honours mathematics instead of finding out exactly why our pupils are not doing better.

The results in mid-August will show up in the usual Bell curve form and will not show the fundamental weaknesses in the system. The same number of pupils will fail, the same number will pass and the same number will get As, Bs and Cs. I have been informed by a corrector of the leaving certificate honours mathematics paper that in one of the 75 mark questions, based on the robotic arm, the marking system has been changed drastically because the results are so dismal.

I am very worried about the mathematics programme and I will tell the Minister why. An advertisement in The Irish Times on Wednesday last by the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies states:

Due to the recent changes in the Leaving Certificate mathematics curriculum, the amount of calculus taught has been severely reduced. As this subject is essential for preparation to third level courses in Mathematics, Science and Engineering (as well as Economics) and in order to give students with an aptitude for mathematics the opportunity to prepare themselves better for further study, a 10-week course on Mathematical Calculus will be given [in the college].

Sceptics might think this to be a money making ploy, but for that ten-week course a nominal fee of €40 applies.

I have tried to investigate this subject dispassionately, and despite contact from a significant number of students and, indeed, many of my own pass pupils who I know to be bright students and students who worked hard. About 50% of the "good maths", vectors, matrices and transformations, 60% of sequences and series, 40% of differential calculus, 50% integral calculus, and difference equations, have been removed from the mathematical paper. Probability and statistics are now worth 50% of the marks on Paper 2. In comparison with GCE A level, statistics is an optional question. Of note also, this is the first leaving certificate maths exam where there was no choice. Maths students had to complete all nine questions in part 1 and part 2 of the honours and pass papers.

Many of our esteemed maths lecturers have expressed concerns at these radical changes, including Mr. Tony Dorlas in the UCC interim report, in the report from Mr. Ted Hurley and Mr. Stephen O'Brien of NUI Galway and in the report from Ms Cora Stack of IT Tallaght. All of the above maths professionals have expressed the view that Project Maths will have a negative impact on maths education.

Experts from University College, Cork say "exaggerated claims" have been made about the benefits of the new approach to maths teaching. Their criticisms range from the subject matter of the course to inadequately trained teachers. They state that Project Maths was introduced with undue haste, which is hard to deny.

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