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Second academic quits Leaving Cert maths reform group over 'incoherent' draft courses
DCU's Aoibhinn Ní Shúilleabháin has become the second academic to resign from the group developing new Leaving Cert maths courses, citing 'incoherent and mathematically inaccurate' drafts. She says the curriculum would fail young people, while the NCCA defends its process and an independent review.
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Second academic quits Leaving Cert maths reform group over 'incoherent' draft courses
A second prominent academic has resigned from the group advising on new Leaving Certificate maths courses, describing the draft specifications as 'incoherent and mathematically inaccurate.'
Aoibhinn Ní Shúilleabháin, associate professor of mathematics education at Dublin City University, left the Mathematics Development Group, which reports to the National Council for Curriculum Assessment (NCCA), in June. She said she did not want to be associated with the drafts, which she said would 'do a disservice to our young people.'
Her departure follows that of Prof Pauline Mellon, who left the group in January citing similar concerns. Ní Shúilleabháin's resignation means she is the second person to leave the group over the proposed curriculum.
'A systems issue'
Speaking on RTÉ's Morning Ireland, Ní Shilleabháin said the proposed curriculum 'will fail to adequately prepare them for their future lives in society and work and study because mathematics underpins so many aspects of our world.' She added: 'I think at the heart of this, it's a systems issue. Subject experts are not formally or consistently included in any subject development group.'
She said conversations were 'limited to simply removing content and shoe-horning assessments into a format that does not make sense.'
'I was hopeful that a review of the curriculum would be evidence-based, would interrogate what has or hasn't worked well so far, and would explore what mathematical skills students might need in ten years where there are multiple global challenges to contend with in a data-driven and AI-integrated world,' she said.
Ní Shúilleabháin also expressed concern about the lack of rigour and the reduction in content and abstraction for high-achieving students, and said errors identified by group members were consistently ignored.
NCCA defends process
The NCCA acknowledged the issue, with director Rachel Linney saying efforts are made to ensure documents are mathematically accurate. 'We do strive to obviously ensure that the documents are mathematically accurate, and we did have an independent mathematician review the documents for any inaccuracies and errors in advance of their publication,' Linney said.
NCCA chief Arlene Forster defended the curriculum development process as 'a rigorous, evidence-based process' and said it is 'very rare for us to lose development group members.'
Political reaction
Social Democrats TD Jen Cummins said Education Minister Hildegarde Naughton must urgently address claims that experts' views were ignored.
The Irish Times reported that Ní Shúilleabháin had requested a meeting with the Minister for Education and had 'consistently' shared her concerns with the group and NCCA members.
How each outlet told it
A framing line is our reading of that outlet's own text — an interpretation, not a quotation and not a fact we assert. Check it against what the outlet published.
Framing: Emphasizes that a second academic quit over concerns that the Leaving Cert maths reform 'doesn't add up'.
Facts Included:
Aoibhinn Ní Shúilleabháin is an associate professor of mathematics education at Dublin City University.
She is the second person to leave the group developing the new Leaving Cert maths curriculum.
She described the current state as 'incoherent and mathematically inaccurate'.
Professor Pauline Mellon left the group in January and cited similar concerns.
Ní Shúilleabháin said the proposed curriculum 'will do a disservice to our young people'.
She spoke on RTÉ's Morning Ireland.
She said: 'It will fail to adequately prepare them for their future lives in society and work and study because mathematics underpins so many aspects of our world.'
She said: 'Unfortunately, conversations were limited to simply removing content and shoe-horning assessments into a format that does not make sense.'
She claimed her concerns were not being addressed, adding: 'I think at the heart of this, it’s a systems issue.'
She said: 'Subject experts are not formally or consistently included in any subject development group.'
She said: 'If I had trust that after the public consultation, fundamental changes could be made to this curriculum and errors corrected and the content made coherent, I would have stayed.'
Professor Mellon said the proposed curriculum 'needs to be scrapped'.
NCCA director Rachel Linney told RTÉ that efforts are made to make sure that documents are mathematically accurate.
Linney said: 'We do strive to obviously ensure that the documents are mathematically accurate, and we did have an independent mathematician review the documents for any inaccuracies and errors in advance of their publication.'
NCCA chief Arlene Forster defended the curriculum development process, adding that it is 'a rigorous, evidence-based process'.
Forster said: 'We receive feedbackin lots of different ways on our draft curriculum documents.'
Forster said it was 'very rare for us to lose development group members'.
Social Democrats TD Jen Cummins said Education Minister Hildegarde Naughton must urgently address claims that experts' views were ignored.
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Claim
Confidence
Status
ClaimAoibhinn Ní Shúilleabháin is an associate professor of mathematics education at Dublin City University.
ClaimAoibhinn Ní Shúilleabháin said the proposed curriculum would fail to adequately prepare students for their future lives in society, work and study because mathematics underpins so many aspects of the world.
ClaimAoibhinn Ní Shúilleabháin said conversations about the curriculum were limited to removing content and shoe-horning assessments into a format that does not make sense.
ClaimAoibhinn Ní Shúilleabháin said if she had trust that after public consultation fundamental changes could be made to the curriculum, she would have stayed.
ClaimAoibhinn Ní Shúilleabháin said biology curricula have been reducing plant-based science content consistently due to lack of subject-matter experts.