NSW: Schools offer easier maths subjects

AAP General News (Australia)
12-16-2003
NSW: Schools offer easier maths subjects

SYDNEY, Dec 16 AAP - The tough new Higher School Certificate syllabus for mathematics
has forced 40 NSW schools to develop their own maths courses, it was reported today.

The Sydney Morning Herald newspaper reports that 40 schools are offering a non-HSC
maths alternative for students who find the HSC General Maths course, which replaced Maths
in Society and Maths in Practice in 2000, too difficult.

Maths head teacher at Farrer Agricultural College, Cus Comi, predicts the number of
students taking the non-HSC maths course at the Tamworth school will grow because "bottom
end" students were not being catered for in the syllabus.

University of Sydney associate professor Terry Gagen told the report the Board of Studies
was turning out an underclass of "mathematical illiterates" because the difficulty of
the subject forced some students to drop the subject.

The Board of Studies said although the number of students studying an HSC maths course
had dropped from 97 per cent to 90 per cent, more courses had provided attractive options
for less academically inclined students.

AAP kjd/rs

KEYWORD: MATHS

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