GREEN ISLAND, Hanover — Faced with a shortage of trained and experienced mathematics teachers within public schools resulting in students being short-changed, vice-principal of Cross Keys High School in Manchester Lorraine Reid-Henningham is calling for the Government and stakeholders to come together and find a solution.

Sharing her views and offering suggestions on the way forward was teacher of mathematics at Spot Valley High School in St James Omar Tomlinson.

Both educators were speaking with the Jamaica Observer on the sidelines of the recently concluded Jamaica Teachers’ Association (JTA) Education Conference 2026 held in Hanover.

“The Government and all stakeholders need to come together and see how is it that we are going to fix the system. It’s a broken system that needs to be fixed,” urged Reid-Henningham.

She noted that the lack of sufficient trained teachers in the system has resulted in inexperienced teachers fresh out of college teaching mathematics at the CSEC and CAPE levels.

“The students again tend to be affected by not having the value that is supposed to be added in preparing them for these examinations. We are seeing where they are not adequately prepared because of inexperience,” argued Reid-Henningham.

The crisis is further compounded by “burnout” among the few specialised teachers left, some of whom are tasked with up to 38 sessions per week.

“They are being overworked. They may have a timetable of a maximum of 40 sessions. You have a teacher with 38 sessions for the week. That causes burnout. We are seeing shortages affecting not only our students, but also our teachers,” argued Reid-Henningham.

Spot Valley High’s Tomlinson has suggested ways in which the deficiency can be resolved, highlighting that the solution begins with making the profession attractive enough to recruit and retain talent.

“One of the first and obvious ones would be remuneration. If you pay well enough, individuals might consider taking up that career path. Because, to be honest, at the end of the day you have a family to take care of,” he stated.

He further noted that beyond salary, the “prestige with teaching” has declined and suggested that “other benefits might be added to the package that might entice persons to want to remain or even go into the area”.

Their views were in response to a declaration by president of the University of Technology (UTech) Dr Kevin Brown, who pointed to the need for more qualified educators in the subject area of mathematics.

“Nearly 29,000 students sit CSEC; only 44 per cent pass math. If fewer students succeed in math and science, then fewer students will pursue STEM subjects like engineering. We have maths teachers currently who are not qualified to teach maths. This is not a disrespectful statement; it’s just a factual one. The point I’m trying to make is: We need qualified teachers for these STEM subjects. That’s how you’re going to get those CSEC passes up,” argued Brown.

Tomlinson echoed these concerns, explaining that schools are often forced to “pull persons who may have some affinity or acquaintance with math” such as engineers or computer scientists. However, he warned that being good at the subject does not mean one is “adept at how to convert, or pass that knowledge on to someone else.” He noted that this lack of pedagogical training can lead to students not getting the concept.

Despite these hurdles, Tomlinson sees a glimmer of hope in recent policy shifts.

“The move by the government to actually have trained maths teachers in the primary school, I would commend them on that. That is a good move because what that does is to help build a proper foundation. Maths is like scaffolding. You’re moving up each level and as you go up each level, it becomes more difficult. If your foundation is not solid, you’re going to have problems the higher up you go,” argued Tomlinson.