Sir, – In recent years there has been much comment in the media about the introduction of the new Project Maths curriculum into the secondary system. However there appears to have been very little comment about the corresponding curriculum in the primary system. As a parent of children who have recently passed through this system, I have had many occasions to peruse the workbooks that students are now learning from to progress in mathematics. I have been somewhat alarmed at the standard of some of the textbooks that are being used in many of the classrooms.
The treatment of many of the topics or strands is simply not in sufficient depth to challenge more able or even brighter students. There is insufficient time given to the learning of fundamental mathematical operations such as multiplication and division in many of these workbooks. Instead of investigating a topic in any depth, the exercises move very quickly from one topic or strand to the next. In some textbooks, almost all the exercises pose questions on all the strands on every page without ever going into any depth in any of these strands.
What appears to be happening is that authors in these books are recoiling from including any form of challenging or difficult problem-solving questions. I would have major reservations about this approach to the teaching of mathematics at this level.
It is worth nothing that major changes are currently being introduced into the primary maths curriculum in the UK with the aim of improving standards and bringing standards at primary level into line with countries such as Singapore and other high-performing maths countries. There is a strong emphasis being placed on practice to gain familiarity with, and expertise in, fundamental concepts in the subject at this level.
In conclusion, particularly in light of the proposed changes in the UK, I think there is a need to have a root-and-branch review of the standard of mathematics that is now being taught, the curriculum itself and the quality of the textbooks provided at primary level in this country. – Yours, etc,
Dr CORA STACK,
Lecturer in Mathematics,
Institute of Technology,
Tallaght, Dublin.