The mathematics crisis

by Edward Peiris

(December 18, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) A crisis has blown up over the 2008 GCE O/L mathematics Paper. Mathematics is a compulsory subject and the candidates who sat the examination under the New Syllabus were the unfortunate victims.

The Department of Education introduced the New Syllabus in mathematics from the year 2008 so that students would develop a liking for mathematics. It was hoped that this would bring down the percentage of students who fail in this subject. At last year’s GCE O/L examination, about 57 per cent of the candidates failed in Mathematics.

In this year’s GCE O/L examination two similar questions have been included in the papers both under the new and old syllabuses with different time allocations. Candidates who sat the examination under the new syllabus were thus immensely inconvenienced.

Students who sat for the paper according to the new syllabus were given less time with fewer marks being allocated for the questions. In the case of students following the old syllabus 14 marks were awarded for the questions with 18 minutes granted. However, the candidates who sat under the new syllabus were given only 10 marks with only 12 minutes to answer them. Even the brightest students found it difficult to answer the question paper.

Mathematics is one of the core subjects of the whole examination. Thus, the Ministry of Education should have acted more responsibly in setting this paper. The paper was complex and confusing. Most candidates found it difficult to understand the questions.

This year, most candidates who answered the mathematics paper under the new syllabus came from the examination hall in tears. Some students fainted during the examination.

It is unfair to blame the teachers for this situation. The teachers are confronted with a difficult task in teaching mathematics. Further the Education authorities should know that according to the present educational system promotions are automatic. Most students in Grades 9, 10 and 11 know little mathematics.

There are some students who do not know even the multiplication tables and basic addition and subtraction. Therefore, the teacher has a very difficult task in teaching mathematics. This is the reality.

In the 2008 mathematics paper, the students had to answer 10 questions, 5 from each part. Even the teachers would have found it difficult to answer 10 questions in 2 hours. Some questions were complex and it took 10 to 15 minutes each to understand them. Some questions had 5 to 6 parts and it took longer to answer such questions.

This type of question paper not only discourages students but also the teachers as well the parents. According to the old syllabus eight questions had to be answered in three hours whereas in the new syllabus, 10 questions had to be answered within a limited time of 2 hours.

We hope that the education authorities would take cognisance of these factors in formulating the mathematics paper in the future.

I do hope that the plight of the students who sat under the new syllabus this year would be justly considered in marking the answer scripts. - Sri Lanka Guardian