August 15th, 2012 – Seán Crowe TD

The Sinn Féin TD for Dublin South West Seán Crowe has congratulated all those students who sat the Leaving Certificate and received their results this week.

Deputy Crowe also commended the fall in failure rates in maths as well as the 11 per cent increase in those taking higher level Irish.

Deputy Crowe said:

“I wish to congratulate all those who sat their Leaving Certificate this year. This is a difficult and challenging time in every young person’s life and students should rightfully be commended for their hard work throughout their time in school. A whole new host of challenges now face these young people who are entering a new chapter in their lives.

“I want to draw special attention to the fall in the number of those failing maths and also the increased uptake in those taking higher level Irish.

“Last year I called on the State Examinations Commission and Education Minister Ruairí Quinn to seriously assess the criticism levelled at the maths curriculum and take steps to improve the content and fairness of the exam. The 20% fall in failure rates is to be welcomed, as is the increase in students taking the higher level maths paper. However with the number failing maths still relatively high at 4,000 it is clear that more now must be done to deal with this issue in the coming years.

“I also want to commend the increase in those taking higher level Irish. This has been attributed to the new marking scheme which awards 40 per cent for the oral exam. Sinn Féin supported this measure when it was first introduced by Mary Hanafin in 2007 and has long been supportive of measures to reform the Irish curriculum to place a greater emphasis on the spoken language. This now seems to have paid off with an 11 per cent increase in those taking the higher level paper. This is very encouraging and should be built upon.

“With the first round of CAO offers coming out next Monday those students hoping to enter third level education will have a lot of challenges ahead of them. The points race will be difficult with points for courses such as science, technology, engineering and agriculture expected to increase.

“For now however I want to wish the class of 2012 all the very best for the road ahead which will be full of new challenges and experiences. Comhghairdeas libh uilig