One-third of people teaching maths not qualified to do so

ONE-THIRD of people teaching maths at second level schools are not fully qualified to do so, but schools fear the situation could get worse instead of improving.

The final results of a survey by the Teaching Council show that 84 teachers who take maths classes at the 422 schools that responded have no third level qualification or other studies in the subject. They make up 2.5% of the 3,311 teachers of maths at the schools.

Two-thirds of them (just under 2,200) are fully qualified with either a qualification in maths or having studied it as one of their major degree subjects.

Another 31% — or 1,029 teachers — only had maths as a major subject for part of their undergraduate degree, although this includes at least a year of study.

Education Minister Ruairi Quinn had asked the Teaching Council to get responses to their survey from all 725 second level schools by Monday after less than half responded to earlier questionnaires. He has tasked Minister of State for Research and Innovation Sean Sherlock to oversee efforts to address difficulties around maths in schools.

Mr Sherlock announced a fortnight ago that postgraduate courses will begin early next year for some of the estimated 1,950 people teaching maths without a full qualification.

“I want to get to a situation where all teachers of maths have a maths qualification and the training programme will help to achieve that. It will offer flexible options including online and face-to-face engagement,” Mr Sherlock said.

But the Joint Managerial Body (JMB) which represents the boards of 390 secondary schools warned that any staffing cuts next year may mean an even higher proportion of pupils being taught maths or other subjects by people without full qualifications.

“If the pupil-teacher ratio is increased, a school has no freedom to recruit teachers for particular subjects. If a school is entitled to two fewer teachers next year and two staff have retired, you just have to deploy their classes among the remaining staff,” said JMB general secretary Ferdia Kelly

“A school will do its best to allocate the most appropriately-qualified teachers to every subject. But it may not be able to do so because it is restricted by not having a perfect match of teachers to subjects in the constraints of the timetable,” he said.

Meanwhile, the Teachers’ Union of Ireland (TUI) said last night it has not signed up to proposals for replacement of the Junior Certificate.

The draft overhaul of the junior cycle put forward by the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment includes a range of new assessments that would include some marking of student’s work by their own teachers.

TUI general secretary Peter MacMenamin said developing new courses and training of teachers will need significant investment that he believes will not be forthcoming.