Photo Courtesy: Lakehead District School Board

The provincial government is putting more emphasis on the basics when it comes to education.

That includes improving math scores.

AJ Keene is the Superintendent of Mathematics for the Lakehead District School Board and says they will still be finding their way when the school year starts.

“It’s great the Ministry is really giving some real attention to math, I think it’s timely and necessary,” says Keene.

“At the same time it’s a little bit daunting, because I don’t necessarily feel that the picture is very clear moving forward.  They’ve rolled some things out, but there’s still a lot of questions to be asked.”

Keene is confident that this increased emphasis on math will see their test scores increase.

“Talk to me again in three months.  We’ll have a better sense of the Ministry’s requirements and a clearer picture of their supports and what they’re looking for.  But I feel very confident in our planning and confident in our team.  I suspect that we’re going to see some very positive impacts in our student achievement in mathematics as a result.”

Keene says they have developed a Math Achievement Action Team, with math leads and math coaches to help students and teachers.