Madam, - I read with interest your Editorial on "Animating maths" (January 8th). No matter what incentives are put in place at Leaving Certificate stage, there is no chance of their making any difference because the damage is done in primary schools.
The specialists - not necessarily experts - who design education and training policies have yet to recognise and accept that the mathematical expertise and general facility for abstract thinking that people like me had - and still have - is grounded in the drilling that made us whiz-kids at mental arithmetic decades ago. Without that grounding, youngsters find maths too difficult and rightly switch to easier games as soon as they can.
So much damage has been done for decades by the lack of primary school drilling that most minds in the training pipeline are under-developed at maths. Our third-level trainers and employers will face a famine for decades.
However, our economy can survive with the help of maths-literate immigrants whose employers are happy to have them here while they become fluent English speakers ready to work elsewhere. - Yours, etc,
JOSEPH F. FOYLE, Ranelagh, Dublin 6.