Letter of the Day | Teachers are doing their part, students must do theirs

THE EDITOR, Madam:

I am writing in response to the article titled ‘Math whiz says fun learning yields top results’, published on November 16. There is no doubt that Mijaun Talbot deserves his roses for his exceptional performance in his sitting of the 2025 CSEC Mathematics exam, his testament to the fact that learning mathematics becomes easier when the students are fully engaged and having fun while doing so.

This is what most of us as teachers have already been doing, trying our utmost best to assist the students in learning mathematics. We do this by spending hours creating and refining lesson plans to suit the diverse learners in our classrooms that bring mathematics from just numbers, letters and symbols on paper to life.

We try to accomplish this, too, by using hands-on activities, creating and building projects, integrating the use of technology, the use of realworld examples so that the students can connect with the contents taught in a significant way.

Unfortunately, our efforts have somehow gone in vain, as the results from these exams show a disturbing pattern. As the article stated, only 44 per cent of the candidates received acceptable grades in CSEC Mathematics this year. Though this shows a marginal improvement from the 2024 sitting, it is still unacceptable and not where we would like to be. Somewhere along the line, we must be honest to ourselves that students also have a responsibility that most of them are not living up to.

It does not matter what teachers do, whether we explain a topic 20 different ways, create engaging games, have students model the mathematics through projects, or do extra lessons or Saturday classes, if students are not doing work on their own, like looking over their notes, completing homework and submitting for feedback, then us doing all the best practices we can find will go so far and no further. Unfortunately, the very same teachers who are being blamed for low performances do have at least one student in their classes who earns grade ones and twos every year. That goes to show that our efforts play such a bigger role that many looking on are not willing to admit.

It is unfair that only teachers carry the full load but, have the students understand that they need to meet us halfway. They can do this by staying focused and understand clearly that their education must be taken seriously, if they want better results.

ALJAY MATTOCKS