Ontario fighting failing math grades

The Ontario government says it plans to do more to address the slipping math grades for students across the province. For the past five years provincial scores have declined with 57% of grade 6 students reaching the provincial math standard, compared to 63% in 2009.

Education minister Liz Sandals says part of the problem is the lack of training for math teachers. She says her government will spend four million dollars this year to help cover the costs of courses that will train elementary teachers how to better teach math.

“If we give teachers an extra opportunity to take more course in math then we will have more teachers who are qualified as math experts. You actually don’t need to have a university degree in math to teach primary math and junior mathematics what you do need is training in how to teach math well primary and junior students.”

Despite the dropping math scores, Sandals says the province is still one of the top jurisdictions in math in the world. However last month’s OECD report showed Canada has dropped out of the top 10 in international math education standings.