Robert Dowds (Dublin Mid West, Labour)
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Question 76: To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if he will consider permitting fifth year students to sit the Leaving Certificate Ordinary Level Maths Paper and allowing them to take the Higher Level paper in sixth year if they so wish, in order to encourage students concerned about the necessity of having at least a pass grade in Maths for entry to third level courses to take the Higher level paper without the worry that a failure in that exam will bar them from entry to third level courses. [31282/12]

Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)
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This matter has been raised on a number of occasions. The considered response of my Department and the State Examinations Commission is that this proposal would lead to an unsound educational experience for students. The Ordinary Level syllabus and Higher Level syllabus are both designed to be covered over a two year period. It would be a considerable challenge to encourage those who followed an Ordinary Level syllabus in the first year of the cycle to take Higher Level in the second year. There is a strong risk they would not take Mathematics at all in the second year. By the time these students reach further studies, they could have had an entire year without any Mathematics at all and would therefore be in a worse position than they had been a year earlier.