maths
A child's math lesson is seen on the floor of a bedroom of an abandoned foreclosed home as Orange County sheriff's deputy Dan Mendoza (unseen) enforces an eviction order on the home in Fullerton, California, in this June 18, 2009 file photograph. Reuters/Lucy Nicholson/Files

A rural NSW high school had been teaching incorrect maths lessons to senior students since the beginning of the year. Education Minister Rob Stokes is “angry” upon learning that the students at Coonamble High School in the central west were taught General Mathematics 1 when they should have been learning General Mathematics 2.

The students needed to learn Maths General 2 because it affects a student’s HSC and counts towards a student’s Australian Tertiary Admission Rank (ATAR), which allows students to enter university. Maths General 1 does not count in ATAR.

The error affects Years 11 and 12 students. Although the results the Year 11 students would get do not directly affect their HSC or ATAR mark, the lessons provide necessary foundation for when they reach Year 12, the AAP notes. Their parents were reportedly furious, while the students were understandably distressed after they were told they needed to learn the correct syllabus in just two months.

“The kids will have to put in extra time and we worry about the pressure that’ll put on them generally – and the impact it will have on other subjects,” Lee O’Connor, PC president and parent of an affected Year 11 student, told AAP. “If the pressure gets too much and they go into the exam and bomb, what about misadventure? This was beyond their control, beyond their parents’ control.”

Stokes said he was “angry on their [the students’ and parents’] behalf” for the blunder, promising that he disciplinary matters would be looked into. “That is not good enough. My heart goes out to the students and their parents,” he told 2GB on Wednesday.

“What the school has come up with, in my view, is not acceptable,” he said, adding that he has instructed a maths instructor from the NSW Education Standards Authority to go after the school. “One of the solutions offered was if they don’t do well, they can do it again next year. That’s clearly a laughable solution.”

The minister admitted that the system has failed the affected students, and it’s up to them to make it up to them. The AAP reports that the authority has since approved a special consideration for the students to assure that the work they had done would count toward the HSC and they do not need to complete extra assessments.

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