Adding hours for maths and English [IrishTimes]
- Published: 16 July 2011
Sir, – I was astonished to read that a mere 36 minutes of the school day are given to the teaching of mathematics in our national schools (Home News, July 9th). This means the time devoted to teaching one of the most important subjects of the curriculum amounts to only three hours per week. No wonder the children of this nation are scoring well below the average of the OECD countries.
Having taught at a private primary school for a number of years, I feel the time allocation to teaching mathematics is wholly inadequate in our State schools. The school at which I taught allocated the following time to be spent teaching core subjects of the national school curriculum: mathematics – 60 minutes per day (five hours per week), English language literacy – 90 minutes per day (7½ hours per week).
I am pleased that Minister for Education Ruairí Quinn is taking steps to remedy this situation. It is not possible to cover the mathematics and English curriculums in-depth unless enough time is given to teaching these vital core subjects.
Full Story: www.irishtimes.com
