A contractual math professor at Memorial University who teaches first year math says he has noticed falling scores among students, especially since the pandemic.

The Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) measures reading, mathematics and science literacy among high school students, but the scores have been dropping across Canada for the past few years.

Dr. Shannon Sullivan, who has taught first-year math at MUN for the past 26 years, says the lower scores have nothing to do with the math teachers in our schools, but are due to a combination of factors.

“It’s a combination of curriculum, time spent on digital devices and screens, and it has hurt the average student performance in math,” says Dr. Sullivan.

He says years ago, there’d always be a small number of first year math students who would make some fundamental mistakes, but now he estimates some 30 to 40 per cent of students are making those same mistakes – and “that’s a big concern.”