I do not yet have any idea what to think about this, other than to suspect that whatever the government does, it won't make that much difference:
Maths education is failing on every account and needs a fundamental multi-million pound overhaul, a government-backed review of the subject reported today.The current system of GCSEs and A-levels is not meeting the needs of students, teachers, employers or universities, the report's author, Professor Adrian Smith, said today as he published the damning 186-page document, the result of a 15-month inquiry into the future of maths in schools.
Less than 10% of GCSE students go on to take A-level maths, and less than 10% of A-level students go on to a maths degree, the report says. Incentives should be considered to halt the "disastrous" decline in pupils taking maths at A-level - examples mooted include waiving university tuition fees for maths students.
Further incentives are necessary to recruit and retain more maths teachers. The report documents a shortfall of 3,400 qualified maths teachers - 40% of maths graduates would have to become teachers to account for the shortfall.
GCSE maths should be split into a two-tier structure covering "maths for life" and maths for further academic study to ensure pupils at both ends of the ability range are properly stretched.
The report calls on the government to set up a "maths tsar" to help revamp the structure and content of the maths curriculum and also to advise ministers.
Ah, a tsar. That's the giveaway. What they appoint a tsar, it means they don't know what the hell to do, and are praying for a miracle.
I suspect that this may be more than a mere error of British education policy, and more like a fundamental historical shift, away from making things, and towards supplying those aesthetic services that Virginia Postrel goes on about. After all, how much maths do you need to be a beautician? Or a lawyer?
If all that physical stuff that the West used to churn out is now going to be made in China, it makes sense for young people to shift their focus away from hard science and towards soft philosophising and grooming and chit-chatting. counselling, marketing, packaging, advertising, showbiz, coming first in reality TV contests. That does certainly seem to be the direction of the culture (and I am certainly in no position to complain about it). And against all that, as I say, I suspect that the government may be powerless.
I happen to think that one reason that America is so economically and militarily strong is because its hard science and mathematics and the like is so good. Much of this is now done by immigrants, and much of it isn't, but America remains a Mecca for people with hard science and technology skills. It needs them. It imports them in huge numbers. I think that such things are becoming more important in the modern economy rather than less, just as at the same time the "culture" you describe rising is none the less rising.
Mike Tomlinson has proposed to make Mathematics a compulsory core subject of the proposed new single diploma that will be replacing GCSEs and A-Levels in the future.
Students will be required to do an extended project or personal challenge as there will be a significant reduction in examinations and coursework.
Students will have to develop a new range of knowledge, skills and attributes such as self-awareness, self-management and interpersonal skills.
Extra-curricular activites will be done including community work and part-time jobs.
It is possible that the proposed reforms could improve the situation with Mathematics in education by improving the grades of Mathematics students, ensuring that older students will continue to study it and there will be an increase in the number of qualified Mathematics teachers.
