(Queen’s Park) Today, during Question Period, Elizabeth Witmer, the PC Education Critic, asked the Minister of Education to strengthen the high school math curriculum to ensure that students possess the math skills needed for success in university programs.

Currently, many students graduating from high school do not have the basic math skills needed for university programs such as business, science, and engineering. As a result, it is becoming more common for Ontario universities to offer remedial math courses to these students.

A survey of Ontario universities reveals that at least seven institutions offer remedial math programs to students and these include: Brock, Carleton, McMaster, Algoma, Wilfrid Laurier and York.

Additionally, several more universities are considering testing the math skills of students and they include: Algoma, Ottawa and Windsor.

Academics such as Professor David Vaughan, the head of the math department at Wilfrid Laurier University, has said that the problem is getting “worse” and he indicates that “students are coming to universities with diminished mastery of many of the basic skills.”

“This is a serious problem that should not be foisted on our universities to resolve,” said Witmer. “If we are to achieve the high standards needed to compete in a global economy, then changes must to be made to the high school math curriculum immediately.”

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For more information contact:

Elizabeth Witmer, MPP

(416) 325-1306