Positivemaths.ie, Ireland’s first online centre of excellence for Maths Students in Ireland launched with the announcement of 15 new jobs for maths teachers and tutors over the next 2 years. Positivemaths.ie focuses on small tutorials (maximum of 6 to 10 per class) offering more student to teacher contact and a new unique diagnostic service called DRIVE – Diagnose, Review, Implement, Verify, Evaluate developed by Irish Engineer and Entrepreneur John Devlin. The new site offers bespoke tutorials on all maths topics for Junior and Leaving Students as well as one to one sessions with maths’ tutors with teaching experience and relevant third level qualifications.

There are currently over 50,000 leaving cert maths students in Ireland and a recent positvemaths.ie survey of 3rd level students outlined that 89% of students would have availed of an online maths tutorial if it had been available to them. Positivemaths.ie is addressing this want by offering struggling Project Maths students tailored e-learning at affordable prices and from the comfort of their own home.

Commenting on the launch of positivemaths.ie, Irish Engineer John Devlin, CEO of Kinetics Process Consulting (KPC) and Founder of Positivemaths.ie said, “My motivation for setting up positivemaths.ie is down to my roles as an engineer, a parent and an employer. Firstly, I am an engineer with over 30 years’ experience. Secondly, I am a parent of a Junior Cert student with first-hand experience of the difficulties Project Maths is presenting. Thirdly, I am an employer of graduate engineers. In the past three years, KPC has hired 18 graduate engineers to work with us on some of the largest Biotech projects in Europe. I worry that the way in which Project Maths has been introduced will have an adverse effect on our graduates of tomorrow. In order to increase the student’s confidence with maths, the teaching needs to be specific to that student and with this in mind I developed the DRIVE System’.”

In the DRIVE process, the student selects the topic or topics which he or she is worried about and completes a set of questions set by the Positivemaths.ie tutors. The student then attends an online tutorial which focuses on their precise needs and gaps in their knowledge. After the tutorial, the student then answers another set of questions which re assesses their knowledge on the topic.

John Devlin adds, “Our aim at Positivemaths.ie is to provide students with a bespoke, tailored service, using our DRIVE system in a tutorial style online classroom with a maximum of 10 students per class to ensure students receive one to one tutoring that they require. We work with energetic, experienced and qualified maths teachers and tutors. We have ambitious plans for positivemaths.ie and will be actively recruiting in the coming months.”

An introductory offer of €15 per DRIVE tutorial is currently available for this school year across all Junior and Leaving Cert Maths subjects.