Providing non-maths teachers with CPD to teach the subject could be necessary to deliver on plans to provide maths to all pupils until 18, according to an expert advising the government.
Speaking to Tes after giving a presentation at the Westminster Education Forum that focused on the next steps for post-16 maths, Tim Oates (pictured), who was appointed to the maths to 18 expert advisory group in April, said it was not realistic to expect only existing maths teachers to fulfil the expectation.
”[We’re] currently stressed in terms of the number of maths teachers and the number of teachers capable of teaching mathematics,” he said.
In March the National Foundation for Educational Research predicted that just 1,820 trainee maths teachers would be recruited to begin training in September - far short of the government recruitment target of 2,960.
Mr Oates, who is group director of assessment research and development at Cambridge Assessment, said the sector would have to find other ways to meet the necessary demand for teachers, including by upskilling teachers from other subjects.
“We need motivating and engaging professional development for both maths teachers and non-maths specialists who are aspiring to contribute to the teaching of mathematics,” he said.
Non-maths teachers ‘can help maths to 18 plan’
He added that he thought teachers in a “number of subjects”, such as the social sciences and the sciences, would be “capable of delivering high-quality mathematics”, but acknowledged that they “may need some CPD to refresh themselves or to adopt the kind of approaches required in the system”.”
Mr Oates said doing this would “significantly increase the amount of expertise available in terms of maths teaching”.
He said that far from maths teaching being seen as onerous by other teachers, he believed that if the right CPD was developed, it would be “attractive to teachers who aren’t conventionally thought of as being mathematics specialists”. “I see it as a big opportunity,” he added.
Asked if he would like to see anything change within initial teacher training as part of plans around maths teaching, Mr Oates said he was not an ITT specialist and wanted to ” leave it to the ITT institutions to think about how to really switch to this provision that will be motivating and engaging for teachers and for young people”.
However, he said it was clear that things needed to change across the sector if more maths teachers were to be developed.
“It can’t be a policy where we simply look at mathematics in the same way as we have in the past,” Mr Oates added.
Prime minister Rishi Sunak first revealed his new plan to ensure that all pupils in England study some form of maths until age 18 in January of this year.
The expert advisory group is expected to meet with the prime minister and education secretary this summer to discuss its findings.
