ONLY 35.7 per cent of the 19,241 students who sat mathematics at the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate Examination (CSEC) level last June passed. At the same time, the national average for the same subject at Grade Six Achievement Test (GSAT) level was only 53 per cent, according to Education Minister Maxine Henry-Wilson.

The minister was speaking Thursday at the opening of a two-day workshop on mathematics at the early childhood and primary levels, at the Medallion Hall Hotel in Kingston.

The workshop, sponsored by the Science and Mathematics Education Centre at the University of the West Indies (UWI), sought to bring in to focus the importance of developing an appreciation for mathematics from an early age.

According to Henry-Wilson, the solution to the problem lay in changing the methods with which the numerical subject is taught and make learning, beginning at the early childhood level, fun for children.

“The vast majority will say (it’s because) it’s too hard. However, I am convinced that well-timed interventions that meet children at their level incorporates play and learning and offered in a stimulating environment can make a world of difference in teaching mathematics to our young ones.

The minister was supported by mathematics professor at London University, Mike Askew, who proposed that teachers of mathematics shift from the procedural method of teaching to one that’s more strategic and which will challenge students.

“We need to make shifts in the focus of what we teach and how we teach it,” Prof Askew said to a full house of teachers and student teachers from Kingston & St Andrew, St Catherine and Manchester.

“Children measure success in math by the speed with which they complete the problems, the number of correct answers they have and getting the right answers with minimal effort. All of these things run counter to the learning dispositions we need to foster. We’ve got to encourage students to seek challenges and value efforts.

“We need to move from ‘knowing’ to ‘learning’. If we put the emphasis on learning, then the knowing will follow…We also need to shift from ‘receiving’ to ‘doing’ and from the habit of pouring information into their minds to making them become aware of what going on in mathematics,” Prof Askew said, in giving the keynote address.

The UK-based educator believes that the change is necessary primarily because the current methods are not working, which he said was obvious in the exam failure rate.

Some of the topics expected to be discussed at the second day of the workshop yesterday included ‘Navigating Geometry’, ‘Making Sense of Decimals’ and ‘Making Mathematics work through Technology’.