Maths teacher drought leaving us exposed

Unqualified teachers are “breaking out in a cold sweat” at having to teach maths. We may as well throw our STEM ambitions out the window if we don’t fix this now, writes Kylie Lang.

I was one of “those” parents who refused to believe that my child was average.

No, I didn’t have an inflated opinion of his strengths, but I wasn’t prepared to be fobbed off by certain teachers who implied I was expecting too much when, in reality, they were delivering too little.

There are many reasons kids fail to hit their straps, lose interest or never engage in school, and teachers’ lack of understanding of their subject matter and poor delivery of what they do know are two.

These problems traverse public and private sectors, of which I’ve experience in both, and lead to a lottery where kids are “lucky” to get the best teachers. The rest are left to plod along, rarely reaching their potential or gaining the confidence that comes with that.

I’ll never forget being told, when asking why my son’s Year 4 maths grades were slipping, that I needed to accept he would “always be a B student at best”. Fly away, helicopter mother.

Fast forward to Year 11, when he chose the two hardest maths subjects, and I again sought feedback. He had the aptitude, apparently, but a few things needed to change.

In Year 12 he was moved into a class led by an outstanding educator. Snap. He went from barely passing to being an A-grade student.

Maths teacher Eddie Woo took his love of teaching to YouTube and was this year named Australia’s Local Hero for his efforts to make maths fun and understandable. Picture: Mark Brake

Sure, he modified his study habits, but his motivation to excel was less about his OP score and more about not disappointing his teacher, who was patient, positive and so bright at maths herself that she could explain any problem so the kids actually got it.

She was 110 per cent invested, and her students responded with 110 per cent effort. It’s an easy equation to understand.

There’s nothing wrong with a B, or any grade, if you’re being given, and are taking, opportunities to do your best. But there is something very wrong with results-limiting behaviour from people whose job it is to educate, communicate and inspire.

One maths teacher used to tell my son that if he needed further help to ask the class dux. Like it’s this child’s role.

And don’t get me started on incorrect “corrections” of grammar by people charged with teaching English.

Fee-paying parents don’t get a discount for dud teachers. And all kids deserve a quality education, be they in the private or public system.

Many maths teachers are spectacularly unqualified, according to a new report, which doesn’t surprise me one bit. What I want to know is: what is being done to raise the bar?

The Australian Mathematical Sciences Institute warns of a “crisis”, with 76 per cent of teens learning from an “out-of-field” teacher in the first four years of high school.

That’s one in three secondary maths classes being taught by non-specialists — people who didn’t study maths for six months as part of their four-year education degree.

Many have not even completed senior school maths and can’t master basic fractions and percentages.

How can children be expected to excel? Too many kids are entering Year 11 without the grounding to tackle advanced maths, while others, particularly girls, are shunning these difficult subjects altogether.

In an era when employers are crying out for maths graduates — who not only understand numbers but are adept at critical thinking, problem solving and coding — the system is short-changing our young people.

The AMSI says the number of kids taking high-level maths has plummeted over the past 20 years, with out-of-field teaching a major factor.

Institute director Geoff Prince says some teachers admit to “breaking out in a cold sweat” when they have to teach maths, and even six months’ tertiary study is inadequate in preparing them.

Maths teacher Lei Bao of Victoria’s Leopold Primary School won a national award for coming up with fun and innovative ways to teach maths. Picture: Mike Dugdale

The Queensland Education Department defends the status quo, a spokeswoman saying more than 7000 of the state’s 25,000 high school teachers are “currently identified with capability to teach mathematics”.

That’s not a figure to crow about if embracing STEM is being taken seriously, and I wonder how this capability is measured.

Professor Prince says maths is essential in three-quarters of the growth employment areas, yet when humanities, sports and music teachers are asked to teach maths, it is impossible to fill the existing shortage of employable young people.

It doesn’t augur well for the future, does it?

And let’s not forget that women make up the bulk of the teaching population, and they’re the ones who, as girls, shied away from maths.

Urgent action is required.

Upskill out-of-field teachers, by all means, but the greater priorities must be to attract and retain the brightest minds.

Lift tertiary entry requirements (an OP19 is farcical), improve training and salaries, and change the way society views teaching — it should be a noble profession not a fallback job — and then we’ll start to get more of the educators parents expect and children deserve.

Kylie Lang is an associate editor at The Courier-Mail