Mathematical Inquiry

In July, the House of Lords science and technology committee published an inquiry into higher education in STEM subjects (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) looking at, among many other things, the falling rates of uptake in the subjects regarded traditionally as “hard” sciences in the UK in comparison to many other countries.

Lord Willis of Knaresborough (who chaired the inquiry) suggested that the biggest problem lies not with a lack of interest but with a lack of mathematical skill. The UK now lies 28^th in the world in school leavers maths skills, and we are falling further every year. Students who do not take maths at A level cannot apply for many STEM courses and find study of most sciences a much larger leap to degree level.

I did do maths at A level, though it was not my strongest subject, because I wanted to go on to study Biological sciences. Armed with this A level I was able to apply to all the universities of my choice although now many STEM courses at good universities do not require an A level grade in mathematics, not because it is unnecessary, but because there are not enough students applying with this qualification to fill the universities' courses.

And where A level maths is necessary to apply for the course some universities are forced to offer remedial maths to all STEM students. Friends studying medicine at top universities report being alarmed by the complete lack of maths skills in their fellow undergrads. This simply tells us that, for everything that A* at A level is worth, the current school maths curriculum is not doing what it is meant to do and forcing more, disinterested pupils onto it will not solve anything. I for one can vouch that no one should ever be made to slog through Statistics 3 against their will.

Instead of a compulsory boosting of numbers, the teaching itself must be changed. Last year Government statistics published on 140,000 secondary school teachers showed nearly a quarter of maths teachers lacked degree level maths. I spoke once to a woman who taught maths at a local secondary school, her qualifications in the subject began and ended with a B at O level. She confided in me that she hated maths but that no one else at the small school was willing to teach it either. No student is going to learn from a teacher who is uncomfortable teaching the subject.

The curriculum at GCSE needs an overhaul first. I can't remember much from my year eleven maths lessons except for playing games, eating sour skittles and being incredibly bored by the entire thing. Barely anything we learnt had real world applications and most had been taught by rote year on year since the start of secondary school. Maths post-GSCE was seen as intimidating, a massive leap up from what we had done so far.

And, in a way, it was. Yet still the lessons were based around memorizing equations and mechanical rules; very little real-world problem solving was done. Days when we tried old Oxbridge entrance papers, or the 6^th form maths challenge were rare because these are not a test of how many geometry equations you could memorize, but instead a challenge of logic, understanding and comfort with numbers, something that wasn't necessary to have to pass the course.

This is were the problem lies, not in the numbers of pupils, but in the core of the curriculum - students are leaving school with no skills to apply their maths. Base the A level around maths you require, give the pupils something to think about, to apply to situations that they come across and more people will begin to feel comfortable with the subject and will take that with them into higher education.