Westmeath school principal tells exam board chiefs ‘shame on you’ over Leaving Cert maths paper that left pupils ‘crying’

“I have one message for the SEC – shame on you,” said Tom Lowry, principal of 850-pupil Moate Community School, Co Westmeath, in a letter to the exam chiefs

Mr Lowry, who also has more than 20 years experience teaching maths at higher level, said he and four higher level maths teachers in his school found it to be “most certainly the most difficult maths papers in the last 10 years”.

“To say it was unfair and unjust to our students for a variety of reasons, is an understatement,” he wrote.

Mr Lowry, who has been a principal for 11 years, noted that the 2023 cohort of students did not sit Junior Cycle examinations due to the Covid-19 pandemic, so these were the first state exams that they had experienced.

“The paper was obscure and from the outset left students in a state of panic and upset before they even began to attempt the examination, thereby not allowing them to complete the paper to their full potential.

“The language used was difficult to interpret, especially for students who are weaker, resulting in students giving up and leaving blanks for their answers,” he wrote.

He said they were faced with “the scenes of students upset and crying as they left our exam halls all over the country, and shaking their ability and confidence as they head into another paper on Monday”.

Mr Lowry said that demanding that students complete difficult higher order maths questions in a pressurised exam setting was “unfair”.

“It has resulted in many good, committed students, who have worked hard and diligently, now have their love of the subject totally eroded. This should not happen, and it is totally unacceptable.”

Mr Lowry said it was “ironic that the bell curve will remain and that now the marking schemes will have to alter to ensure the same amount of H1, H2, H3..... grades. This actually means that the questions will be front-loaded regarding allocation of marks, so a paper of this style makes absolutely no sense.”

He said student well-being was constantly a topic of conversation in schools and he was not “so sure any Leaving Cert student’s well-being is in a great place this weekend after Friday’s trauma”.

The paper, the first of two that students sit, triggered a wave of negative reaction on social media over the weekend. Leaving Cert candidates sit maths Paper 2 today.

Maths at higher level has a particular significance for students because 25 CAO bonus points are awarded to candidates who achieve a minimum 40pc. This was introduced to encourage study of the subject at higher level and has doubled the number of students sitting the “honours” exam.

A student’s maths results can also be critical when it comes to receiving a CAO offer, as many course require minimum grades for applicants to be eligible for an offer.