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Australia:
Math in crisis as teachers go private
Source: The Australian by Andrew Trounson.
March 4, 2009.
Advanced mathematics is disappearing from public school classrooms,
leaving students able to learn only basic math, because the few
qualified teachers are being snapped up by the private sector.
The shortage of math teachers will become more acute as fewer students
continue math at university, undermining the nation's skills base in
engineering, the sciences and technology, scientists warn.
"The inequitable access to quality mathematics education is a national
disgrace," the National Committee for the Mathematical Sciences says in
a report calling for a national strategy to boost the discipline.
An estimated 40 per cent of senior school mathematics teachers do not
have a math major, the minimum needed to teach the subject to senior
years, the committee believes. That is up from 30 per cent in 1999.
At the same time, university enrolments for math majors fell almost 14
per cent between 2001 and 2007.
The committee is part of the Australian Academy of Science. Its
chairman, Hyam Rubinstein, said state schools could not compete with the
private sector for qualified math teachers.
"Students not having access to (higher level math) in government
schools is really disadvantaging them in a number of important areas of
study," Professor Rubinstein said.
"It is just going to make the skills shortage worse because, even with
the economic downturn, we need to replace our engineers who are all
ageing, and we aren't going to be able to do that if people aren't doing
mathematics at school."
The number of Year 12 students studying advanced math has fallen 20 per
cent, from 25,000 in 1995 to 20,000 in 2007. The proportion of Year 12
students studying senior math has now fallen from 14 per cent to 10per
cent, with the proportion taking intermediate math down from 27 per
cent to 21 per cent. In contrast, the proportion studying elementary
math has risen from 37 per cent to 48 per cent.
Mathematical Association of Victoria head Simon Pryor said: "Year 7 and
Year 8 are critical years, especially if you are going to get kids to
love mathematics."
Mr Pryor said principals, hit by limited resources, were being forced to
staff math classes with teachers lacking math qualifications.
This year, Mr Pryor took a call from a young teacher at a Victorian
state school who last studied math at school in Year 12. He was
desperate for coaching after discovering he had been given a full load
teaching math to Years 10 and 11.
While it is not new for the association to get cries for help from
teachers with little math training, Mr Pryor said he was surprised that
senior school students were being taught by teachers lacking math
training.
A senior mathematics teacher, who preferred not to be named, said
unqualified math teachers inevitably could only teach practical math.
As a result students were missing out on the higher, abstract math
required to go on to university study.
The National Committee for the Mathematical Sciences is calling for a
national system of mathematics teacher registration. It wants school
systems to be able to offer "golden handshakes" to attract
mathematicians into teaching. It also wants schools to offer tenure to
new math teachers.
It recommends a widening of the federal Government's HECS discount
scheme for science graduates entering teaching to include other degrees
that also include math, such as computer science and engineering.
It also wants the Government to crack down on universities and ensure
government money specifically targeted for math and statistics
departments is not spent elsewhere within the universities.
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