Fake Maths
The Age September 14, 2009
Dear Editor,
I support the push for better standards of literacy and numeracy in Australia. So I must comment on the report in Saturday’s AGE stating that 1 in 10 students is below basic standards. The real figure is much worse. This is a classic example of how misleading stats can be.
The report says that 5.1% of Year 9 students failed the basic standard in numeracy. What a joke! This actually implies that 19 out of 20 are up to standard in Maths. If only.
To add a decimal place to such a fake percentage figure may seem to add an air of scientific precision. But these figures have no basis in reality, except what some education-industry window-dresser thought they could get away with. The whole point is: the so-called “benchmark” has been set ridiculously low.
Many countries have a more numerate population than we do. The vast majority of Australians would just swallow this report without realising that there was no real-world floor to the figures at all.
First step is to spend a lot more of the time wasted in teacher training actually teaching trainee teachers what they are supposed to teach – especially Maths and English.
Philip O'Carroll