The Teachers’ Union of Ireland has warned that any further increase in the pupil teacher ratio will have hugely negative repercussions for the teaching of maths in Irish schools.
Responding to today’s Teaching Council survey results, TUI General Secretary Peter MacMenamin said:
“In the sectors in which TUI represents teachers (VEC and Community and Comprehensive schools), all teachers have to be deemed qualified by the Department of Education and Skills or the Teaching Council in the subject they are employed to teach in, so for us the ‘unqualified’ label is a fallacy.
Regardless, to focus solely on qualifications is to severely restrict the debate on the subject. There are a range of issues to be examined such as the curriculum at all levels and Irish society’s traditional view on the subject and we would also warn against any suggestion that Project Maths, as worthy as it is, will remedy all problems.
Quite rightly, nobody blames doctors and nurses for the failings of our health service. The same amnesty should also apply to teachers as practitioners rather than policy makers.
In the current debate it must also be stressed that any increase in the pupil teacher ratio will have disastrous repercussions for the future promotion of Maths in Irish schools. We already have a situation as a result of prior cutbacks where many schools are already mixing both higher and ordinary levels or fifth and sixth year students in the same classroom in a last effort to offer the subjects.
Predictably, this has had a disproportionate effect on the most vulnerable within the education system.
A further increase in the pupil teacher ratio is a reduction in teacher numbers. In such a situation, many hard-pressed principals will be forced to drop options that cater for smaller numbers of students. In many cases, higher level maths falls into this category.
If the Department is serious about the promotion of the subject, the education system must be insulated from further cutbacks.”