Maths teachers 'not fully qualified' in subject

ALMOST 2,000 maths teachers are not fully qualified to teach the subject, new figures reveal.

The disclosure came as 116,000 students began the Junior and Leaving Cert exams yesterday, with initial reaction to the opening English papers in both tests being generally favourable.

Tomorrow, the students turn their attention to maths, which is the subject of yet another report prepared by a group of experts.

In it, they express serious concern over the huge numbers of maths teachers who did not take maths as a major subject for their degree.

Many of these unqualified teachers are teaching non-exam classes, but the report repeats the view that students who may be weaker at maths should have access to teachers who hold a qualification in the subject.

It recommended the introduction of post-graduate programmes to allow all maths teachers gain a recognised qualification by 2018.

In the meantime, it said systems should be put in place to allow principals to share qualified maths teachers with schools in their locality to make higher-level maths classes available to all students.

The figures, which come from the Teaching Council, were disclosed in the report of the Project Maths Implementation Support Group, which was chaired by Frank Turpin, former education manager at Intel Ireland.

The report was formally presented to Education Minister Mary Coughlan yesterday.

Unhelpful

The council was rapped over the knuckles in the report for not producing a list of post-graduate programmes for continuing professional development.

'In a context where a major drive is under way to equip teachers to upskill, or existing teachers such as engineers to retrain to gain a recognised teaching qualification in maths, this lack of clarity was felt to be unhelpful,' it said.

It suggested that the council should introduce, as soon as possible, a mandatory requirement for teachers to engage in a specified level of professional development each year as a pre-condition for maintaining registration with the council.

The report said the Department of Education and Skills should seek tenders from higher-education providers for the provision of regionally accessible post-graduate programmes for teachers of maths.

In addition, all schools should be required to provide a minimum of one mathematics class every school day for all students.

It said that the roll-out of Project Maths to all schools from September 2010 should proceed with optimum speed as planned, supported by comprehensive planning and the necessary resources.

Employers' body IBEC welcomed the report, but expressed concern over the numbers taking higher-level maths.

'Only 16.2pc of students sat higher-level mathematics in the 2009 Leaving Cert.'

This was down from a high of 18.9pc in 2005 and is significantly out of line with participation at higher level in other subjects, Tony Donohoe, IBEC head of education policy, said.

- John Walshe Education Editor

Irish Independent