EDUCATION Minister Andrew Holness has re-emphasised the importance of improved teaching and learning in mathematics at a time when many students continue to underperform in the subject.

“Mathematics is one of our weakest areas in education. As a result of our weakness in mathematics, we are also weak in the sciences because mathematics is the language of science,” he said.

The minister was speaking earlier this month at the handover of the NCB Foundation’s Mathematics Scope & Sequence of Content Teaching Module for Secondary Schools to his ministry.

“If we have any hope or intention of being world leaders in the sciences, we have to conquer our fear of mathematics. Much of our fear of mathematics is cultural… We have not placed mathematics as a priority as how we place other things,” Holness said.

It is against this background that he applauded the NCB Foundation for its investment in the module which was developed by a team, including lead consultant Radley Reid — an educator and former principal of Campion College.

According to Holness, the module will be used to guide teachers in their teaching of the subject in order to help boost learning outcomes.

“Oftentimes the schools simply don’t have the institutional or instructional resources to make that repatriation. What NCB has invested in here is a template… that we could use right across the education system,” he said.

Reid, meanwhile, detailed the success of the module so far.

“In July 2004, after the Caribbean Secondary Examination Certificate (CSEC) mathematics examination results were published, (it was found that) only 46 per cent of the students who completed five years of secondary level education (had been) entered for the… examination,” he said. “Of that 46 per cent, only 36 per cent passed mathematics with either a grade one, two or three. Sixty-four per cent obtained a grade three, 27.3 per cent obtained a grade two and 11 per cent passed with a grade one.”

Given these dismal findings, the NCB Foundation approached Reid to conduct a study within six Corporate Area schools — Gaynstead High, Jamaica College, Meadowbrook High, Mona High, St George’s College, and St Hugh’s High — with the sample comprised of students from grades nine through 11. The objective was to inform the creation of a module best suited to the needs of such students.

One of Reid’s most alarming findings was that some of the easiest topics within the mathematics syllabus were not being taught effectively.

“Geometry, which is such an exciting and practical subject, and the easiest subject in the mathematics curriculum — easiest to understand and easiest to teach — which (also) develops reasoning and thinking, that particular aspect of the syllabus was hardly taught in schools,” the consultant noted.

Still, he said there is hope yet for students, thanks to the module.

“Within the six schools in which we implemented the scope & sequence module… the percentage change between 2004 to 2010 ranged from 35.5 per cent to 68.4 per cent… We on the consultant team know that Gaynstead High School and Meadowbrook High School followed the scope and sequence module (and) the results speak for themselves,” he said. “In the case of Meadowbrook, in 2004 they had 47 students passing out of 176. In 2010, they had 146 passing out of 199. In the case of Gaynstead, they had three students passing out of 61 in 2004. In 2010, they had 44 students passing out of 60.”

However, Reid was quick to add that if the successes are to be repeated elsewhere, teachers will first have to be taught how to use, manage, assess and deliver the module.