Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein)
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To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the number and the percentage number of pupils who took honours and pass level maths for the junior and leaving certificate for each of the past five years; the steps being taken to increase that number in the forthcoming years. [52314/12]

Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)
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The State Examinations Commission has statutory responsibility for operational matters relating to the certificate examinations.

I wish to inform the Deputy that statistics in relation to the Leaving Certificate examinations (2000 - 2012), including mathematics, can be downloaded from State Examinations Commission website:- www.examinations.ie/statistics.

There are a number of initiatives currently underway to improve the quality of teaching and learning so as to ensure that the outcomes for our students in this curricular area continue to improve over the next number of years. These initiatives include my publication of the National Literacy and Numeracy Strategy last year, the introduction of Project Maths, the prioritisation of Continuing Professional Development for our Maths teachers, the funding by my Department of a post-graduate Diploma in Maths to upskill out-of- field Maths teachers, the request to schools for greater amount of time for teaching maths both at primary and post primary levels. In addition, I welcome provision of 25 bonus points from Higher Education institutions for Leaving Certificate students who achieve a grade D3 or higher in higher level maths.

All of these initiatives, including the 25 bonus points, have contributed to much higher number of candidates taking honours level maths in this year's examinations. The number of higher level candidates in 2012 was 11,131 compared to 8,237 in 2011.

Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein)
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To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the actual number and the percentage number of pupils who took honours and pass level history for the junior and leaving certificate for each of the past five years; the steps being taken to increase that number in the forthcoming years. [52315/12]

Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)
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The State Examinations Commission has statutory responsibility for operational matters relating to the certificate examinations.

I wish to inform the Deputy that statistics in relation to the Junior Certificate and Leaving Certificate examinations (2000 - 2012), including the number of candidates who completed Junior and Leaving Certificate History, can be downloaded from State Examinations Commission website:- www.examinations.ie/statistics.

In the new Junior Cycle, as described in my Framework for Junior Cycle, all students will be expected to achieve 24 statements of learning over the three years of their Junior Cycle. These include valuing local, national and international heritage and understanding the importance of the relationship between past and current events and the forces that drive change and understanding the origins and impacts of social, economic and environmental aspects of the world around him/her.

It is clear therefore that the development of a student's historical awareness skills, will be necessary to achieve the required junior cycle outcomes. Overall, I am in favour of leaving the decisions on what subjects are offered to the discretion of the school, and of students having as broad a range of options to choose from as possible.