3rd December 2013
By TheCork.ie
news@TheCork.ie
Fine Gael Senator Deirdre Clune has today (Tuesday) welcomed the
publication of the OECD report which assessed 15 year olds, across 65
countries, in literacy, numeracy and science and showed Irish students
recording above average results.
“This type of report has been prepared every three years since 2000
and has come to be a very significant international benchmark. The
PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment) report from 2012
tells us that Irish 15 year olds are ranked 17th for reading, up from
21st place in 2009; 15th for science, up from 20th in 2009; and 20th
for maths up from 32nd place in 2009.
“These findings are a welcome improvement on the 2009 results which
were a wake-up call for our education system. These results will give
encouragement to all those involved in education that we are on the
right track.
“Project Maths has been rolled out since 2010 putting an emphasis on
an understanding of mathematical concepts. The students that
participated in the 2012 report for Ireland would have benefitted from
this approach to maths teaching, and, as all students starting Junior
Cert are now being taught Project Maths, those benefits will become
more widespread. Recent changes to the science curriculum also promote
an understanding of concepts rather than rote learning. The
participation of teachers in their continuing professional development
in these areas will have played an important role in these results.
“While these results are an improvement on those seen in 2009, they
are not in the top 10%; an area which is notably dominated by Far East
countries such as China, Japan, Singapore and Korea. As we are in
competition with these countries when attracting investment, it is
critical that we continue to strive to match, and exceed, these
counties in future results.”
