The Education Transformation Team (ETT) on Monday launched the National Mathematics Strategy for Schools, in a bid to improve the performance of students in the subject at the primary and secondary levels.

Through this strategy, direction will be given to stem the continued decline in student performance and to increase national awareness about the importance of numeracy.

The strategy also seeks to ensure that the curriculum supports the threefold approach to mathematics teaching. This facilitates the development of conceptual under-standing, computational fluency and problem-solving skills.

Keynote speaker at the National Mathematics Conference, Dr Claude Packer, said there was a crisis of teaching and learning in Jamaica and this crisis was affecting mathematics.

Packer told the more than 200 educators who gathered at the Hilton Kingston hotel in New Kingston that significant changes must take place in maths.

Mathematical concepts

Packer said mathematics educators should help to engineer change by assisting students to understand mathematical concepts.

However, he said, this would be difficult as Jamaica is constrained by a rigid syllabus for Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) and the Grade Six Achievement Test (GSAT).

"We are teaching for exams and this has to change," Packer said during the conference, held under the theme 'Numeracy Counts'.

Tamika Benjamin, national mathematics coordinator, said Monday marked the beginning of a "long and difficult journey".

"I firmly believe we can achieve our goals," she said.

Pointing to the poor performance of students in GSAT and CSEC mathematics, Frank Weeple, executive director of the ETT, said the results were unacceptable and urgent work was needed.

"We need to change (the) perception (of mathematics) and we need to market mathematics and remove the fear," he said.

The strategy will target primary- and secondary-level teachers andstudents by providing intervention for underperformers while facilitating opportunities for gifted students to be challenged. It will also investigate the gender achievement gap which exists.

In addition, the strategy will influence change in the curriculum of the country's teacher-training colleges. The National Mathematics Strategy will also facilitate opportunities for ongoing in-service training for teachers and teacher trainers.