O’Kelly Leads All-Ireland Volunteers Team To Boost Engineering
Release date: Friday, 12 February 2010
Irish and Leinster rugby player Malcolm O’Kelly was one of many volunteer engineers to go into schools around the country on Thursday 11th February to enthuse students about maths as part of Engineers Week 2010. Engineers Ireland’s Volunteer Day featured just under 1,000 volunteer engineers and almost treble the amount of students around Ireland working on maths puzzles and worksheets to improve understanding of the subject.
Research by Ipsos MRBI on behalf of Engineers Ireland to mark the day also found 70% of people feel a revision of how the current maths curriculum is taught would improve the results of leaving cert students. Engineers Ireland also today launched the ‘Report of Task Force on Education of Mathematics and Science at Second Level’ which calls for greater resourcing of the Project Maths initiative and the requirement for teachers to have specific education qualifications in the area of maths and the sciences to teach these subjects.
Malcolm O’Kelly, who returned to his old school Templeogue College, highlighted the value of an engineering degree and the diverse career options it offers. “Obviously I’ve been lucky enough to enjoy many years in rugby but I know the value of an engineering qualification and I will always have that as a career support when my sports exploits come to an end! I also understand the importance of maths so I’m glad to have had the opportunity to go back to my old school to help students get to grips with what is a vital subject in any walk of life. I’m glad to support Engineers Ireland. I’m now using my engineering background to undertake a project management course so I would strongly encourage students to consider engineering as a real career choice.”
O’Kelly holds an engineering under-graduate degree and a masters degree in mathematics from Trinity College Dublin.
John Power, thanked the huge contribution the volunteer engineers made to the day and emphasised the key findings in the Engineers Ireland maths and science report. “There is clearly a widely held view that the ongoing problems across maths and the sciences in our education system are not helping Ireland. Our Task Force has undertaken a thorough review of the current framework and produced several key actions now necessary. These include greater resourcing of the Project Maths initiative, the requirement for teachers to have specific education qualifications in the area of maths and the sciences to teach these subjects, as well as tax breaks for teacher retraining. Engineers Ireland now looks forward to working with the Department, the NCCA and other relevant bodies to convert these actions into real change with regards to how we teach maths and the sciences.”
The report was commissioned to assess the current situation in the education of Mathematics and Science Subjects at Second Level. It outlined key proposals including:
• Greater resourcing for Project Maths needed
• Make science compulsory at Junior level
• Ensure maths and science teachers adequately qualified
• Use ICT to teach and learn better
• Use transition year to encourage maths & science
• Boost appreciation of science, engineering and technology amongst career guidance professionals
• Tax breaks for teacher re-training
• A ban on calculators at primary and junior cycle levels
A copy of the report is available here.