Sean Barrett (Independent)

Today's edition of The Irish Times has a headline, "Higher level paper [in mathematics] called disastrous, traumatic". That was the experience of 10,000 students taking that paper yesterday. The article contains a quote that, "Students' nervousness in advance of this exam paper was well-founded". We have discussed this on several occasions in the House. It is a major problem. Is project maths working?

Are bonus points a good idea? Did that cause some of the tension yesterday? As we have asked here, what do the bonus points solve? They give an advantage to the 20% who had a qualified mathematics teacher at second level or those who could afford grinds. We need to examine this on a much wider sphere than merely giving bonus points to students. In Finland, I gather, a teacher must have an MA in the subject in which he or she teaches. That is what we are trying to compete with and we need the co-operation of teacher training and mathematics departments.

I would ask that the Minister of State at the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, Deputy Sean Sherlock, who is working in this area and deserves our support, come to the House to debate this vital issue, not least so that we could support him in implementing vital reforms in the area. We must bring teacher training in mathematics up to international standards and not have the disastrous and traumatic experiences described.

In the interests of balance, the Irish Examiner did not find that. However, it is an issue that is worth our debating here. I note how concerned the Minister of State, Deputy Sherlock, is about it. In fact, he launched initiatives recently to try to make up for our national problems in mathematics teaching. It is an issue that would be well worth debating in the House.