Posted online: Aug 23rd, 2010

By Sinéad Flanagan
Editor

WITH SEVERAL THOUSAND students around the county being offered places in college through the CAO on Monday, there were tribulations and celebrations as some got onto the courses they had worked for, while others have been left to consider their options.
Gardai reported four arrests in North Kildare as students celebrated their results last Wednesday, while in Naas gardai remarked that while the area was well patrolled, students in general behaved themselves.
With 4,000 having failed maths nationally, Education Minister Mary Coughlan has said she hopes to see an incentive in place by 2012 to get students more interested in the subject, through the introduction of bonus points.
In a report prepared for Ms Coughlan into errors this year in a Leaving Certificate Accounting paper and a Junior Certificate Business Studies paper, the State Examinations Commission has concluded that students suffered no disadvantage as a result.
Meanwhile the American Chamber of Commerce in Ireland, which represents more than 600 US companies here, said that the continuing failure rates in subjects such as Maths, Chemistry and Physics was disappointing considering the focus on developing a smart economy.