In the wake of the furore over this year's Leaving Certificate maths results, Deirdre O'Shaughnessy talks to GMIT's Head of Business, Larry Elwood about students, the economy and the future of both

As a lecturer in business who deals with hundreds of students each year, Larry Elwood is well placed to judge whether the recent fuss about the Leaving Certificate maths results was well justified.

There are over 1,000 students attending the School of Business in GMIT, covering areas like accountancy, human resource management, marketing and enterprise and information systems.

According to Elwood, the Leaving Certificate results must be read in the light of "where the Irish economy is trying to position itself". That is, as a knowledge economy driven by innovation and creativity in high tech, high value added enterprises.

"The mainstay of that economy going forward will, of course, be an appropriate balance between engineering, business and computing and science graduates. In that regard, the Leaving Certificate results are disappointing, but I think if they generate the required policy responses across the three strands of education then we may in fact be looking at a strengthening of Irish education.

"For instance, I think the introduction of Project Maths at primary level, if properly funded and implemented, will go some way over the medium term towards addressing the problem. In the short term I don't see any benefit in talking ourselves into a crisis. There is enough goodwill across all the agencies and third level colleges to put short term measures in place," says Elwood.

However, he says, he has noticed a decline in students' proficiency at maths.

"There is no doubt that the current cohort of students, based upon my own experiences as a lecturer, has recurring difficulties with maths and quantitatively based subjects. This becomes even more obvious when you teach abroad, particularly in mainland European countries. That's not to say that Irish students are any less capable, but that there are cultural and systems difficulties. What we have to do is to incentivise the teaching of maths, not in a monetary way, but in a way that energises our children from a very early age to become enthused about maths as an essential life skill. I'm a firm believer in that regard of the relevancy of any academic subject as being a major determining factor in its attractiveness. Therein lays the challenge!"

Despite the gloom, he believes third-level institutes including GMIT are prepared to rise to the challenge the maths deficit is presenting.