This doesn't surprise me given that requirement for student Primary School Teachers is a C3 in Pass maths.???????
A love and ability at maths is instilled at Primary School.
We have to get better quality teachers into the system, pay them more?
Its a miracle I got through school and college when i think of the pathetic maths teachers I had through primary and secondary.
A female teacher friend of mine tells me that theres a greater emphasis on languages in primary schools because primary teachers are predominantly female who prefer to do teach irish and music than maths.
Rexo
We have to get better quality teachers into the system, pay them more?
What maths exactly?Some of the maths that are being done in secondary school are quite ridiculous and they are never used again for anything. They are so uninteresting and can take up so much time that could be put into another subject instead.
Some of the maths that are being done in secondary school are quite ridiculous and they are never used again for anything..
What maths exactly?
Lots of it. Obviously depending on if you go on to third level education or a career that require you to use particular topics, but for the most part after formal education I never had a need to use trigonometry, co-ordinate geometry, complex numbers, calculus, statistics and probability or functions and graphs. There may be more.
If you are not interested in that why not do pass or foundation level maths? After all in you day to day life you only need to be able to add, multiply, divide and have a basic grasp of financial formulae
All of this maths is vital for any scientist , engineer, economist etc.. If Ireland is serious about building a strong economy these people are the foundation.
I am an engineer and my day to day work is built on calculus. If you trying to claim that maths is optional to understanding most physical sciences and engineering then you are away with the birds.I am both a scientist and a software engineer incidentally and I have never had to use any of the topics I mentioned in a real life situation (only as part of coursework in third level education).
Wait a sec, as far as I remember higher level maths is mandatory only for certain science and engineering third level courses. Isn't this still true?Plenty of people never use anything bar basic maths after school, yet are forced to study it for 6 years in secondary school, time that may have been better spent in a subject they cared about. Same goes for all non optional Leaving Cert subjects (Irish and English).
What maths exactly?
I am an engineer and my day to day work is built on calculus. If you trying to claim that maths is optional to understanding most physical sciences and engineering then you are away with the birds.
Wait a sec, as far as I remember higher level maths is mandatory only for certain science and engineering third level courses. Isn't this still true?
And yes I believe that passing a certain level (at least foundation level) of maths should be required before you can claim to have a rounded education.
Surely there are too many subjects required to have a 'rounded education'. I think the problem a lot of people had with maths was they would learn formulae and the like but not understand why they were actually usuing it and for what purpose. If there was more emphasis on the real life uses of mathemathics then maybe more people would find it interesting and not argue against its practicality.
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