Next week’s Budget will allocate $100 million over four years for expert maths teachers and maths tests at primary and intermediate schools.
In a pre-Budget announcement this afternoon, Education Minister Erica Stanford said most of the money, $56m, would pay for the equivalent of 143 full-time maths intervention teachers to help primary school children who were struggling with the subject.
She said $40m would be spent on small group maths tutoring for up to 34,000 children in Year 7-8 each year.
Stanford said the Government would spend $4m to develop and introduce a tests schools could use to check children’s maths ability.
“From next year, every child will have their maths ability checked in their first two years of schooling. The check will identify students who would benefit from additional support, early on in their schooling journey,” Stanford said.
She said the maths intervention teachers would provide the same sort of support already provided to help children learn to read and write.
“This investment means more students will get the expert support they need, when they need it,” Stanford said.
She said the small-group maths tutoring would build on a current pilot to provide tutoring to students who were not yet at achieving at the curriculum level expected of their age group.
“Proficiency in maths is such an important foundation of success in life. Every child deserves the opportunity to be confident and capable in maths so they can reach their potential,” she said.
“Ensuring students are prepared to enter secondary school with strong foundations in maths will support them to succeed in the co-requisite assessment, NCEA and life beyond school”.
Stanford said all of the initiatives would be introduced in te reo Māori for students learning in bilingual or kura kaupapa settings.
She said the spending built on the Government’s action plan to transform maths teaching and learning.
The Government this year introduced a new, tougher primary school maths curriculum.
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