Sir, – Ivan Yates (Education Today, February 14th) continues to peddle the media-driven populist nonsense regarding the teaching of mathematics and its “not properly qualified” teachers.
From my experience teaching maths I can illustrate three real reasons why Ireland is underperforming mathematically.
First, the parents. Maths is the most basic language known to humankind. Like all languages, the fundamentals (for example, counting, addition and subtraction) need to be taught in the home. Too many parents don’t do this, to the detriment of their child’s education.
Second, primary schools. There needs to be a state primary exam to ensure that each primary school covers the necessary material in a satisfactory manner, for example multiplication tables, fractions, and decimals. Far too many primary schools are underperforming in this role, with the result that students enter secondary school “hating maths” and lacking the basic skills and confidence for maths.
Third, students themselves. In general, students who perform poorly have poor work ethics. Maths is not hard but it does require hard work. The points system compounds this. I had an honours student who passed the mocks but refused to take the honours maths exam as he had the necessary points for his course and it was just “too much hassle”.
The above – and not whether the primary focus of a degree is maths and therefore “properly qualifies” a teacher to teach maths – are the real issues that need addressing. Teachers are professionals. As such, and I’m sure I speak for the majority of teachers, they would never take a teaching position in which they didn’t have the necessary competencies to perform their duties in a satisfactory and professional manner. – Yours, etc,