Educator warns schools overlook pupils’ maths difficulties
Sunday 25th October 2026 on 06:30 in
Estonia
Some pupils reach the end of basic school without the cause of their mathematics difficulties being identified, special education teacher and Tallinn University lecturer Liina Malva told ERR. A packed curriculum leaves little room to address gaps in learning, she said, while differentiated learning materials could help.
Malva, whose recent research has focused on difficulties with mathematics, said such challenges can occur in every class and at every school level. It is difficult to establish how common they are because there are no standard assessment tools and the difficulties vary widely. Research literature suggests that as many as one in four pupils may have a mathematics learning difficulty.
A study published this spring by Malva and her colleagues, involving 773 eighth-grade pupils in Estonia, found that 9% had low calculation skills. Their teachers had not previously noticed their difficulties, and their knowledge was weaker than that of pupils whose struggles had been recognised.
“It is possible that at some point people simply accept low calculation skills,” Malva said. She added that the fast pace of teaching can limit teachers’ ability to respond to differences among pupils.
Schools use different approaches to address learning gaps, including ability-based groups and assistant teachers. In some schools, special education teachers take responsibility for supporting pupils with difficulties in mathematics.
Malva said one possible cause is dyscalculia, a specific difficulty with calculation skills that is present from birth, often hereditary and lifelong. In Estonia, she said, it is rarely identified or diagnosed. A child with dyscalculia may need to count the dots on a dice one by one rather than recognise the number immediately.
Other difficulties can stem from differences in perception, memory, thinking or attention, which may affect learning across different areas of mathematics. Research has found that up to 60% of pupils with dyslexia also experience difficulties learning mathematics, Malva said.