Minns government scraps mandatory maths for Year 12 HSC students

Longstanding plans to make maths compulsory for all Year 12 HSC students by 2026 have been dumped altogether. Do you think it should be compulsory? Vote in our poll.

Longstanding plans to make maths compulsory for all Year 12 HSC students by 2026 have been scrapped, with principals told the already delayed, five-year-old policy has been dumped altogether.

The NSW Education Standards Authority (NESA), the body responsible for designing school curriculums and running the HSC, has written to high school principals to tell them maths would remain an optional subject for senior students into the future.

“NESA can clarify that mathematics will remain optional for students in Years 11 and 12,” the letter to principals read.

The curriculum body will also “evaluate” the HSC minimum standard, an online reading, writing and numeracy test all students must sit between Year 10 and completing their HSC, and hand down recommendations early next year.

“Maths and numeracy skills must be addressed as early as possible,” a spokeswoman said.

(File image) Plans to make maths compulsory for NSW Year 12 students have been scrapped. Picture: David Swift

“The evaluation will also put forward options to better support teachers to identify students and address potential learning gaps earlier in their high school education.”

The previous Coalition government signalled in 2019 its intention to make mathematics a mandatory subject and doubled down in 2022, announcing the Class of 2026 would be the first to sit compulsory HSC exams.

The backflip has been welcomed by school leaders, but criticised by figures in higher education.

NSW Secondary Principals’ Council president Craig Petersen said the memo from NESA was “really good news” for educators concerned about reducing students’ study options.

“It’s something we’ve been agitating against since 2019,” he said.

“We advised the government against it at the time, and the Department and NESA. The concerns we raised were manifold. We are far better off allocating our resources to supporting children in numeracy though primary school and early high school.

The government says it will focus instead on maths education in the earlier years. Picture: iStock

“If you want students to finish high school, forcing them to choose an increasingly restricted range of subjects is counter-productive.”

Previous education minister Sarah Mitchell accused her successor of “hid(ing) behind the bureaucrats” by allowing NESA to take the fall for scrapping the plan.

“The decision of the NSW Labor Government to walk away from compulsory maths does our students a huge disservice and does not bode well for our kids and their future,” Ms Mitchell said.

“The fact that the Education Minister doesn’t even have the guts to publicly announce this change is appalling.

“Rather than hide behind the bureaucrats, the Minister should be explaining to parents why she doesn’t support their children learning practical numeracy and maths skills throughout their entire time at school.”

Former edicSarah Mitchell at the Budget Estimates hearing held at the NSW Parliament in Sydney. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Christian Gilles

Deputy Premier and Education Minister Prue Car said the former government’s plan was a “thought bubble” announced “without any consultation” in the midst of a chronic shortage of maths teachers.

“We’re focused on developing earlier interventions to ensure every student is supported to develop important numeracy skills before they leave school,” she said.

“If the former government was serious about lifting maths outcomes, they would have addressed the teacher shortage crisis instead of announcing thought bubbles with no plan to deliver them.”

Australian Mathematical Sciences Institute director Tim Marchant disagreed with the decision, and said maths should be compulsory for all Year 12 students.

“The study of some mathematics, at any level, is a very valuable skill that will help you make decisions for the rest of your life,” Professor Marchant said.

“There’s lots of competing interests when it comes to HSC subjects, but English is already compulsory and maths should be too.”

UNSW Professor of Mathematics Education Kim Beswick said the backflip was a “sad” one, but “pragmatic”, given an existing shortage of qualified maths teachers.

“You can’t have too much maths, but it has to be well taught,” she said.

“We’re not going to fix the teacher shortage in under a generation, I don’t think.”

Cherrybrook Technology High School maths teacher and YouTube star Eddie Woo, who supported the initial decision to make maths mandatory, said the teacher shortage made it unfeasible.

“To make maths compulsory, you need a lot of extra maths teachers,” he said.

“You can’t just hope they’re going to magically appear, that they’re going to fall from the trees.

“But I don’t want this to mean we’re going to take the foot off the pedal. It’s not like because the government has made this decision, it means maths is any less essential.”

The decision means English will remain the only compulsory HSC subject. Students must study at least two ‘units’ of English, however those enrolled in the basic ‘English Studies’ course can choose whether or not to take the final exam, unless they wish to obtain an ATAR.

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