Team Herald
PORVORIM: Goa Board of Secondary and Higher Secondary Education (GBSHSE) said that overall the level of Mathematics in Goa is lower compared to the national level primarily because the subject is not handled by qualified teachers in Goa.
Speaking to Herald, GBSHSE Chairman Jose Rebello said, “We have teachers who are B.Ed but we don’t have teachers who are graduates in mathematics or physics in our system. Very few teachers and very few schools have and those schools, I would say, are fortunate. Overall the level of mathematics in Goa is lower compared to average students at the national level because maths is not handled by teachers who are qualified in our schools. For subjects like physics and maths there are hardly any teachers in the school systems, they would be only qualified in chemistry and most in biology.”
Asked for a solution to the issue, Rebello said, “The pass percentage at MSc is very bad. Those who are passing out are bad. It all boils down to the brightest child not getting into pure sciences. Actually, the solution to that is to attract those who are qualified in maths and physics, we need to attract them to the teaching profession.”
He added, “We have a study that shows that students of schools that have qualified teachers do very well at the board exams. The base of mathematics is not getting developed among our students so when they come to the higher secondary, even though we have fully qualified teachers who are post graduates, there is a gap that they have to make up.”
“The lack of maths expertise will come into focus when we have entrance exams for engineering which involve both Class XI as well as XII portion,” he said
