Concern over staffing after changes to math curriculum
Posted Oct 31, 2012 03:56:04 PM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
While championing the province’s changes to Grade 10 math curriculum, one of Halifax’s high school principals says he’s anticipating staffing challenges.
Grade 10 math will now be a full-year course instead of a half-year, or a semester.
Sir John A. MacDonald Principal Al Reiner tells News 95.7, he’s worried about lay-offs as students lose an elective to math.
“So right off the bat, I worry about the cost of what courses might be not enrolled, what courses might kids not take, what elective will that be?” he says. “And therefore, I may find that I have a teacher that has taught an elective for a long time and the Grade 10 students don’t sign up for it anymore.”
Reiner says his concern goes beyond scheduling and becomes more about protecting a well-rounded education experience, especially if students now have to use another half-year to complete mathematics.
“If that’s drama, or art or the Grade 10 history, the courses that aren’t pre-requisites or aren’t mandatory, what courses might that impact on?” he asks.
Finding qualified math teachers is a problem in Nova Scotia already. Reiner estimates he will need as many as two additional math teachers and predicts the province overall will need to hire about two dozen.
