When HSC students will sit a compulsory maths exam for the first time
High school students will need to start brushing up on their arithmetic if they want to succeed in the HSC, with the first Year 12 class to sit a compulsory exam revealed.
NSW
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Education Minister Sarah Mitchel has declared the HSC class of 2026 will be the first cohort of students to be forced to study mathematics in Year 12.
The move to make maths inescapable in the final years of school was first flagged back in 2019 and the NSW Education Standards Authority said new senior syllabuses would be introduced by 2025.
The new 2026 date will give teachers time to come to terms with the new curriculum content and will mean students currently in Year 8 will be the first grade to be forced to do the subject.
Education Minister Sarah Mitchell said the move would improve the career prospects of high school graduates no matter what job they wanted.
“Maths helps develop skills for life, providing students with fundamental skills in problem-solving, analysis and reasoning that are essential no matter what career they choose,” she said.
“My vision is for every child in NSW to have the necessary maths skills to succeed in life.”
For students who aren’t maths nerds excited by Pythagoras' theorem, the government previously announced the introduction of a simpler maths course focusing on percentages and interest rates.
The move also has the backing of high profile YouTube star and Cherrybrook Technology High teacher Eddie Woo who said it would help kids who didn’t like maths the most.
“The more unnatural it is to develop skill in a particular area, the more valuable it will be to you because it really broadens your ability,” he said.
He himself was always interested in the humanities subjects at school but became a maths teacher because there was simply a higher demand for jobs in that subject.
“My proclivity is towards the humanities. I can do it because I’ve spent many hundreds and thousands of hours applying myself for it,” he said.
He told young people currently in high school that performing well in the subject would boost their confidence.
“A lot of people’s self-concept about their own intelligence is deeply tied to how they go in maths,” he said.
He personally finds teaching lower-ability maths classes more rewarding. In one class recently a student told him she was going to “check out” because she would be leaving school to get an apprenticeship as pastry chef.
“I said, ‘tell me more about that’. It took us 15 minutes to realise that actually to be a successful pastry chef, you’re really got to know ratios and measurements and proportions and be able to run your own business,” he said.
Monash University education expert Prof Chandra Shah said some children were just not inclined towards maths.
“For example if someone is very artistic and would prefer to concentrate on artistic things there might not be that much time to do that if they have to do maths,” he said.
“It may not work for everybody if you’re forced into that situation.”
“The subjects students do at that level should be what they want to do and what they’re passionate about.”
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Originally published as When HSC students will sit a compulsory maths exam for the first time
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