Engineers call for Leaving Cert bonus points

29-01-2008

by Stephen Errity

The Director General of Engineers Ireland has issued a call for the immediate return of bonus points for honours maths and science in the Leaving Cert exams.

John Power says his organisation wants the extra points to be re-introduced only for students taking these subjects who apply to do engineering courses in any Irish college. "This has been talked about for several years but there has still been no final decision and I am calling for that now as we enter CAO season," Power said in a statement.

Engineers Ireland say they are concerned at recent trends which show yearly decreases in the number of students taking maths, physics and chemistry at Leaving Certificate honours level. It also notes that students are not going into engineering, particularly the electrical and electronic discipline, in the numbers required. The organisation has warned of a coming skills shortage as a result, which could leave Ireland unable to compete in the global engineering industry.

Prospects for those that do graduate as engineers in Ireland are good, with seven of the top ten ICT firms in the world based here. Engineers Ireland says there are currently more highly-paid vacancies in engineering each year than there are suitable candidates and believes a 7 percent increase in the number of engineering graduates each year for the foreseeable future will be necessary if Ireland is to remain among the world leaders in this sector.

With this call, Engineers Ireland has become the latest group to voice its concerns about the state of maths and science education in Ireland. In early December, employer's body IBEC called on the Minister for Education Mary Hanafin to immediately sign off on proposed new Junior and Leaving Certificate maths curricula, after an OECD report showed no improvement in the mathematical ability of Irish 15-year-olds.

At the time, the director of IBEC's high-tech arm ICT Ireland also lobbied for the reintroduction of bonus points for higher-level maths. ICT Ireland also expressed concern in August when the release of the Leaving Cert results again showed high failure rates in maths and science subjects.