Prebble on maths in schools

Richard Prebble writes:

For family reasons, my wife and I are raising our 11-year-old grandson.

He has been a pupil under both Chris Hipkins and Erica Stanford.

Under Hipkins, I became so concerned about his maths that I bought an online programme and taught him myself.

Today he is doing much more maths at school.

He is now doing maths a year ahead of his age.

I have been able to retire as his maths coach. He is having guitar lessons instead.

I was shocked to hear Hipkins say in the leaders’ debate that Labour will abandon the compulsory daily hour of maths and leave the decision to teachers.

I have seen what can happen.

One of my daughters at intermediate school level had a teacher who did not like maths. So she did not teach it.

When my daughter reached secondary school, we discovered she was two years behind.

I paid for coaching. She caught up.

Her classmates did not.

One teacher’s decision not to teach maths damaged the future of many pupils.

Under Hipkins, New Zealand recorded a big fall in maths achievement in the 2022 PISA results.

I know what happens when children are not guaranteed time to learn maths.

I have seen it twice in my own family.

Labour’s policy is to abolish the minimum one hour a day of reading, writing and mathematics that Erica Stanford introduced. It was a policy recommended to Hipkins for maths by the Royal Society of NZ, and he has vowed to end it.

Our kids are now 1.5 to 2 years behind where kids were 20 years ago, and Labour seems to oppose every initiative Stanford has done to turn this around.