Inside the world of business
Bonus points for maths - the cost-nothing solution
WHILE THOUSANDS of Leaving Cert students prepared to celebrate last night, plenty of people, whose school days are far behind them, declared that the education system must try harder, particularly at maths and science.
Results in these subjects were “disappointing”, according to business and professional groups. About 4,300 students failed maths, sparking warnings that unless the issue is tackled, Irish workers won’t be smart enough for the smart economy.
The Government has a solution: bonus points for higher maths. The idea is that the more points there are on offer for scoring in a particular subject, the more students will opt for it.
There are holes in this theory. Students grasp the ins and outs of the points system easily, and if they already believe that higher level maths isn’t worth the risk, there’s a good chance that they will adjust their third-level targets accordingly.
Similarly, if a student is not interested in pursuing higher level maths or science in the first place, there’s no guarantee that extra points will change their mind.
But none of this matters, because the only reason the Government is talking about a bonus points scheme is that it costs nothing.
The question of resources hangs over all of this. The American Chamber of Commerce, which represents a lot of investors in the Republic, pointed out yesterday that Irish schools spend less time teaching these subjects than those in other EU countries. Engineers Ireland, which has done research in the area, pointed out that maths teachers need more support, from inside and outside the education system.
At a more basic level, Government unwillingness to push ahead with capital spending plans means that thousands of Irish children are going to school in substandard buildings, while recent cutbacks have resulted in fewer teachers trying to teach more students.
All this hits the system’s ability to give students the grounding they need to tackle subjects such as higher maths in the first place. Throwing them a few extra points at the end of it all won’t make any difference.
Handicap for investors?
It’s a constant refrain with punters that bookies never lose. Their investors are less interested in that than they are in just how wide or narrow their winning margins are in a given period.
They were pretty wide in the first six months of this year. Results at the Cheltenham festival, one of the biggest betting events of the year, strongly favoured the bookies.
And they were similarly good at the “biggest betting event ever”: the World Cup finals, on which €2 billion was wagered in Britain and Ireland. The number of draws at the tournament were a big boost. Punters tend to back one team or the other, so a level result means that fewer collect. Investors are presumably anticipating this, as Paddy Power, which is due to report its interims next week, had a 3 per cent hike in its share price yesterday.
Next year, one of the bookies’ core offerings faces a shake up. British racing, which provides much of the day-to-day product, is cutting fixtures by 10 per cent. That’s 10 per cent fewer races, and 10 per cent fewer British racing markets.
It’s hard to say how this will hit turnover. Bookies say that they depend less and less on racing for business. This is partly for political reasons, because of various disputes about their contribution to the sport. Investors would be wise to weigh up any comments listed bookies make about 2011 fixture lists over the next few months.
Elan’s torrid week
It has been a torrid week for biotech group Elan. The company would have expected largely positive attention as it announced plans to redeem the $300 million in outstanding debt ahead of next year’s maturity in a refinancing exercise that will also see it issue new bonds with a redemption date of 2016.
Instead, dissident investor Ib Sonderby has been raising the temperature in his campaign against what he sees as boardroom failures and conflicts of interest at the company. He has also raised questions about remuneration, especially that of chief executive Kelly Martin who has received an increased package for his remaining two years in the role.
To make matters worse, Eli Lilly has announced it is shutting down a final-stage clinical trial of an Alzheimer’s treatment in which Elan had been involved. Not only did the drug, Semagacestat, fail to prove its efficacy, it actually worsened patients’ condition and exposed them to an increased risk of skin cancer.
Elan had retained certain marketing rights and royalties on eventual sales.
More significantly for Elan, Semagacestat was the most advanced therapy looking to treat Alzheimer’s by modulating gamma-secretase. The thinking is that inhibiting production of the enzyme will stop the production process of beta-amyloid which is implicated in the development and progression of Alzheimer’s.
Elan is one of a number of companies pursuing gamma-secretase inhibitors, among other prospective treatments it is researching. Its candidates – ELND006 and ELND007 – are at an early stage of development but the failure of Lilly’s drug places a question mark over the approach and points to the difficulties in dealing with the complexities of treating Alzheimer’s.
TODAYEuro-zone bond markets will remain in the spotlight for investors at home and abroad, while domestic economy watchers will seek clues on trends from CSO figures on July vehicle licensing.
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