The wait is over for more than 55,000 students who receive their Leaving Cert results today and with errors in the Maths Paper, the spotlight is on controversial Project Maths syllabus.

John Devlin, founder of Positivemaths.ie, said while human errors are unavoidable, the significant error in Question 8 in this year’s Higher Level Paper 2 brought negative attention to the new syllabus which is designed as an interactive means of relating maths to real-life situations.

“It’s not ideal that 4 per cent of candidates showed evidence of being impacted as a consequence of the error in Question 8,” he said.

“Sitting the Leaving Cert is a stressful experience for any student without being thrown a curve ball like that error which could have really shaken their confidence. But I believe the State Examinations Commission’s actions and strategies to identify the impact of the error are to be commended.

“The special protocol it actioned to analyse the extent of the disadvantage on students’ performance was exceptionally thorough and a prime example of the importance of maths skills in the workplace.”

Mr Devlin, an engineer by trade, is passionate about the need for greater maths skills in graduates and doesn’t believe anyone gains from the Maths paper being marked easily.

“While the syllabus has had some teething problems, I believe the Project Maths course is very well designed and long-overdue. I hire graduates year-on-year so I know first-hand how effective the new syllabus is in improving their problem-solving and analytical skills.”

Positivemaths.ie is an online support service that provides tutorial support tailored to the needs of students.

From next year, the Leaving Cert maths paper will be entirely based on the Project Maths syllabus.