Swot up or ship out

It is good news that 400 teachers will return to college to try to get qualifications that will allow them continue to teach maths at second level.

That welcome would be all the greater if the 1,900 teachers who teach maths without relevant qualifications had enrolled in a course that would qualify them for the job they are paid to do.

Report after report, some from academia, others from business, have warned that our students are not getting the grounding they need to thrive in an environment dependent on a deep understanding of the subject.

These courses, available online, should not be optional for under-qualified teachers. Anybody teaching maths in, say, three years, should have appropriate qualifications or be replaced. We wouldn’t accept a half-qualified doctor, why should it be different for maths teachers?

This is yet another opportunity for the Croke Park deal to show it’s worth preserving.