Faced with a growing decline in the pass rate for Mathematics at the high school level, the Chief Education Officer, Saddam Hussain, has dispatched a 16-point guideline that secondary schools are to take on board to improve the performances of their students in Mathematics.

As part of the guideline, Headteachers have been told that Mathematics must be taught in all classes of all grades for a minimum of 240 minutes per week.

Additionally, Mathematics must only be taught during the morning sessions, and all Mathematics periods must be time-tabled in double periods, except if an exemption request is made by the Headteacher and that request is granted.

The Chief Education Officer has also directed that Mathematics teachers for Grades 10 and 11 must meet weekly to plan lessons, identify resources, design evaluation instruments, evaluate past lessons, plan remediation strategies and all other related curriculum activities.

As part of the guideline, teachers are also being told that the solving of past CSEC Mathematics exam papers must begin at the Grade 7 level, with CXC type questions being used as well as Mathematics terms similar to those used at the CXC level to be used in the teaching of the new High School students.

The guideline also instructs the formation of Regional Mathematics Committees to facilitate monthly meetings to explore different methodologies in teaching Mathematics.

With regards to the School Based Assessment to be done for Mathematics, those should be completed no later than the second week in the August term of Grade 10.

Schools are also expected to form Committees to review the SBAs for Mathematics, once those are completed, and schools have also been told to be aware of factors that could affect a child’s learning ability with Mathematics and take action to address those factors.

The Chief Education Officer has warned that disciplinary action could be taken against those Heads of Department and District Education Officials who do not ensure that the guidelines are followed and implemented.

Guyana has been trying various strategies to address the high failure rate for Mathematics at the CSEC level. More than 65% of the students who wrote Mathematics this year, failed to obtain a Grade One to Three.

The situation is also worrisome in the Caribbean.

Some Educators who have studied the guideline put out by the Chief Education Officer, believe there is a whole lot more than needs to be done to address the problem, rather than adding an extra period or moving classes to morning sessions only, which could affect the timetable for other subject areas.

There have been calls for special after school classes that would be compulsory for students to attend.

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