Lack of qualified maths teachers causes fraction friction in high schools

Most Australian high school students are being taught by unqualified maths teachers who require remedial training, an alarming new report reveals.

MOST Australian high school students are being taught by unqualified maths teachers who require remedial training, an alarming new report reveals.

The Australian Mathematical Sciences Institute (AMSI) yesterday warned of a teaching “crisis”, with just one in four teenagers learning from a specialist maths teacher throughout the first four years of high school.

Eight per cent of students will get to Year 11 without any lessons from a teacher who studied maths at university.

QLD BUCKS TREND OF NATIONAL MATHS BACKSLIDE - Courier Mail

And three-quarters of students will be taught by an “out of field” maths teacher – including teachers specialising in physical education or English – at least once between Year 7 and 10.

Teenage girls are half as likely as boys to study advanced maths, stunting their options for lucrative careers in science, engineering or medicine.

The latest data shows that only 7 per cent of Year 12 girls studied advanced maths, compared to 14 per cent of boys in 2016.

A lack of qualified maths teachers is undermining the Australian education system.

AMSI director Geoff Prince said girls’ lack of interest in maths began in primary school, where 82 per cent of teachers are women.

He said some primary school teachers had confessed to “breaking out in a cold sweat” when they have to teach maths.

“There are lots of women teaching maths in primary schools who don’t understand fractions and percentages properly themselves,” he said.

“Many of them haven’t done maths through to Year 12.”

Professor Prince said teachers’ “maths anxiety” rubbed off more on girls than boys.

“Lots of girls are coming out of primary school thinking they’re not good at maths,” he said.

Prof Prince called for remedial training for more than 7000 unqualified maths teachers fronting Australian classrooms.

“These are crisis figures,” he said.

“We should retrain existing out-of-field teachers to make up the shortfall.”

Prof Prince said students in Year 7 and 8 were likely to be taught maths by teachers specialising in English, physical education or the humanities.

Older students were more likely to have science teachers fronting their maths classes.

The AMSI estimates that 7318 of the nation’s maths teachers are “out-of-field” – meaning they did not study maths at university, and possibly not even at high school.

And 1220 qualified maths teachers were quitting or retiring every year.

“In-field” maths teachers are those who studied maths for six months during their four-year education degree.

But Professor Prince said that even six months’ study was “inadequate” to prepare teachers for high school maths lessons.

A Queensland Education Department spokeswoman said that more than 7000 of the state’s 25,000 high school teachers “are currently identified with capability to teach mathematics”.

She said more than 3100 state school teachers had received online training in the STEM subjects of science, technology, engineering and maths.

More than 90 teachers accessed an online course in teaching Maths C in Term 1 this year.

The spokeswoman said that girls made up 37 per cent of enrolments in the most difficult Maths C subject last year.

The Courier-Mail revealed in August that music and sports teachers are being “throw in the deep end” to teach high school maths and science, and that some schools have had to cap student enrolments in the crucial subjects.

Australia’s Chief Scientist Alan Finkel has urged more high school students to tackle advanced maths subjects.

He warned last week that students who took elementary maths for their Senior Certificate were more likely to fail biology and chemistry at university, compared to those who took advanced maths.