Teaching Mathematics in Jamaica

The teaching of math in Jamaica - New ways vs old-style leadership

by:Ian Allen

Amid renewed concerns in recent months about the performance of students in the CSEC and CAPE exams, the following article, which was first published March 9, 2005, as part of the Gleaner's Education 2020 Supplement, is being republished. The authors contend that there is new, innovative pedagogy that needs to be generalised within Jamaica's schools.


The educational community in Jamaica has been desperately searching for some answers to the enormous crisis facing the teaching and learning of mathematics in the public-education system, which has broad implications for the future prospects of the competitiveness of the Jamaican workforce. This is what motivated the Gibraltar Institute to design a week-long mathematics workshop for high-school teachers.
This workshop, titled 'Unlocking Barriers in Mathematics Education: A Mathematics Innovation Programme', engaged high school-based mathematics teachers in Jamaica in a dialogue about how to get their students excited about learning the subject, and to explore creative methods of teaching mathematics. The objective was to create a core group of math teachers throughout the island who could benefit from a global network of researchers outside of Jamaica who are actively engaged in exploring ways to unlock the barriers that students face in learning math.
Week-long workshop
Professors Michael Orrison and Jon Jacobsen, of the math department of Harvey Mudd College, Claremont, California, developed the curriculum and conducted the week-long workshop. In the end, our hope was that participants would leave the workshop excited about teaching mathematics with enthusiasm and purpose, and that they would gain some 'bigger picture' ideas.



It is a good thing that Mathematics is given priority in many if not all countries. Jamaica has done a great job in focusing on how to teach Mathematics because it really is not easy. I myself is a Mathematics teacher and I do a lot of motivations, like mathematics games, etc in order for my students to learn Mathematics joyfully. Let's hope that many countries will follow Jamaica's approach.