Education advocates are giving the Ford government a thumbs-up on plans to revamp Ontario’s math curriculum.

Revealed exclusively in Wednesday’s Toronto Sun, documents obtained by the Sun describes the plan as a move away from ‘Discovery Math’ for Grades 1 through 8, as well as implementing a more traditional mathematics curriculum that includes learning times tables and other basic skills by rote and improving teacher training in math.

“It’s important that kids understand how to do the principles of math,” said Maddie Di Muccio, president of the Society for Quality Education.

She said there may be a place for Discovery Math in higher grades, but children need to learn the basics and build a foundation beforehand.

“It’s so important to learn things like multiplication tables, addition, subtraction … those are the fundamentals that help guide Discovery Math,” Di Muccio said.

Over the past several years, standardized test scores have fallen to the point where just 49% of students in Grade 6 met provincial standards last year.

Brian Dijkema, Program Director in Work and Economics at the think tank Cardus says both employers and colleges and universities have noticed students leaving the school system lack necessary math skills.

“Everytime that you talk to an employer they say, ‘We have the people but they don’t know how to read a tape measure,” he said.

From manufacturing to the tech world, Dijkema said there’s increase in the need for math skills at a time when the quality math instruction has been going down.

Like Di Muccio, Dijkema said the school system needs to implement a traditional curriculum to give children a basic math foundation.

“If you talk to any mathematician, they say math works on a principle of starting with one part of the scaffolding and you build on that,” Dijkema said.

If that base isn’t secure, he said, the top will start to creak.

On Wednesday during an event in Cambridge, Ont., Premier Doug Ford pledged the full curriculum, to be unveiled soon, will focus on helping both students and teachers improve on math.

“We’re making sure that our Grade 6 students are no longer ranked the lowest in the country when it comes to math tests,” Ford said.

Part of the new plan will include better mathematics training for those going through teachers college, as well as skills upgrades for those already in the system.

“One third of those teachers that are teaching the Grade 6 math test, they failed the test as well. So we need to put more training with our teachers and focus on our students,” the premier said.

In addition, the plan also allows parents access to a digital copy of the curriculum so they can help their kids understand their math homework.

“What I really liked was the access to the parent’s portal. That’s a great step in the right direction,” Di Muccio said.

The full revised curriculum — including details on sex-ed — is due to be released within days.

blilley@postmedia.com