Maths teaching 'over-reliant' on agency staff

Education President, Deputy Andrea Dudley-Owen, said maths performance among Guernsey school children was "an issue"

Guernsey has become too reliant on the use of temporary staff to teach maths to school children, the island's education president has said.

Deputy Andrea Dudley-Owen said the lack of teaching continuity has had an impact on children's numeracy skills followed the release of the island's GCSE results.

She said while there has been an "improving picture" in literacy skills, maths remained "an issue".

Ms Dudley-Owen said efforts were now focussing on recruiting more full-time maths teachers, with the aim of improving GCSE results in the future.

'Global shortage'

In the GCSE results for the bailiwick, those who achieved a Grade 4 or above in maths fell from 69.7% in 2023 to 62.8% in 2024. The figure for States maintained schools in 2024 was 51.4%.

For English language results this year it was 75.5% across the islands and 68.6% for States-run schools - up from 67%.

Dudley-Owen said: "Our English results are good and we've seen an improving picture.

"One of the areas that we know has needed some significant support is actually math specialist subject teachers.

"We have had an over reliance on temporary maths teachers because there is a global shortage and Guernsey does suffer from that," said Ms Dudley-Owen.

"But we have got good news in terms of our recruitment.

"We are looking at a better complement of staff in terms of the amount of vacancies that we've got going into September, but we have had a reliance on agency staff that we wouldn't have ideally want.

"We would have wanted permanent, full-time members of staff in those teaching positions for maths, for all subjects, and that hasn't been possible.

"We know that continuity and consistency for our children, in so far as having the same staff member in front of them for their lessons, is really, really important," added Ms Dudley-Owen.