NSW schools use PE and science teachers to plug maths gaps

“Out-of-area teaching is not a sudden phenomenon and affects many subjects. But it’s very worrying in maths because it impacts so many students and is the gateway to STEM careers.”

Watt said more advantaged schools can attract qualified teachers, which means schools with “fewer resources become residualised, and are less able to compete”.

Of about 100 maths teachers working outside their speciality, more than two-thirds reported needing professional development in maths instruction, and had less confidence than those qualified in the subject in all year 7 and 8 maths topics, the study found.

Linear relationships and ratios and rates were the areas where they had the least confidence.

Teachers said the most common reason for working outside their speciality was they were “willing when asked”, while others reported positive reasons for teaching maths out-of-field, including hoping to improve their skills or wanting the challenge.

Enrolments in HSC maths courses have plunged over the past two decades: about 22 per cent of HSC students opted out of maths last year, compared with 6 per cent in 2000.

Girls are less likely to take advanced and extension courses, while enrolments in more challenging maths subjects have flatlined.

Watt said girls can end up “opting down or out of maths due to lower self-confidence than their achievement warrants”.

The Australian Mathematical Society and other peak maths groups called for a federal-state program to upskill teachers, and for formal data collection on out-of-field teaching.

“Fresh graduate teachers alone cannot defuse the crisis,” their report said, warning the “inequitable situation is severe in outer-suburban, low SES and regional schools”.

Ensuring students are taught by confident and knowledgeable maths teachers is critical for Australia’s future, economic competitiveness and national security, the report said.

Schools are struggling with teacher shortages nationally, with 2021 department data showing 22 per cent of NSW public maths teachers were not specifically trained to teach the subject. Students taught by unqualified teachers received lower HSC results on average, that data showed.

“With difficulties in attracting new recruits into the profession and sustaining the existing workforce, it appears the situation will likely go from bad to worse,” Watt said.

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All 48 schools surveyed by the university researchers had both in- and out-of-field maths teachers working in them last year. Two schools had no teachers who had formal maths qualifications.

Last week the department cancelled its Mathematics Retraining Program, while also removing the Mid-Career Transition to Teaching Program from its website.

University of Newcastle professor Elena Prieto, a project lead on the retraining program, was “heartbroken” about the decision. About 75 teachers have participated in the scheme in the past two years, which covers the cost of a master’s to retrain in maths.

The department promoted the program in mid-July, saying those who had graduated were “flourishing as better secondary school maths teachers”.

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“Feedback from the participants indicates they have developed greater capabilities, particularly in senior levels of advanced and extension maths,” the department said.

The education department says the cancelled training programs would be replaced next year with scholarships of between $20,000 and $30,000 and a guaranteed job on completion.

The latest 2022 PISA data shows no major change in Australian students’ maths results since 2015, but the gap between high-scoring students and the weakest has widened.

“In mathematics, low achievers became weaker; high achievers became stronger,” an OECD report on Australia’s results said.

This year’s NAPLAN results show a third of students are failing to meet proficiency in numeracy. A plan to make maths compulsory for years 11 and 12 students in NSW was axed this year.

NSW Secondary Principals’ Council president Denise Lofts said while teacher vacancies had improved slightly in the past year, maths, science and technology subjects are still hard to staff. “For regional schools things are getting harder,” she said.

The survey found 40 per cent of principals said it is “always” hard to find qualified maths teachers, with their preference to bring back retired teachers or to get out-of-field maths teachers to fill vacancies.

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