Study suggests overhaul of how maths is taught at primary level

Children’s progress in maths at the age of nine has a major influence through to Junior Certificate preparations and suggests a need to overhaul how it is taught at primary level, a leading education researcher says.

Emer Smyth, research professor at the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI), was speaking about the findings of her study of children’s experience of the switch from primary to second level.

A key discovery relates to the engagement with maths of children in third and fourth classes who took part in the research as part of the long-running Growing Up in Ireland study.