Group of Eight Review's sum of all fears: maths is in serious decline

Maths students at Annesley College in Adelaide. The Group of Eight Review warns that many students are put off by the subject / The Advertiser Source: The Advertiser

THE number of students studying maths and science is falling to dangerous levels, prompting warnings of a critical shortage in skilled workers.

The Group of Eight Review, carried out by eight of the nation's leading universities has delivered an alarming picture of maths and science in Australian schools.

The review reveals students are losing interest in maths and science in primary school, leading to a decline in the number of Year 12 advanced maths students going on to degrees in key skills shortage areas such as engineering, statistics and economics.

Professor Peter Dowd, from the University of Adelaide's engineering, computer and mathematical sciences faculty, said that Australia was producing not enough engineers to keep up with major defence and mining projects.

"We are in danger of failing," Professor Brown said.

"We are tending to graduate less engineers per head of population yet we have got the work sitting here on our doorstep."

The review calls for primary school teachers to be given extra resources to make maths and science "fun" and "exciting" for students and to stop referring to advanced maths as "advanced" or "specialist", because it creates the perception that only "smart kids" can cope with the subject.

Remedial classes

It also recommends remedial classes in advanced maths and science at the beginning of university, to allow Year 12 students who shunned the subjects the chance to still study maths and science-based degrees.

The Review of Education in Mathematics, Data Science and Quantitative Disciplines also shows:

- From 2001 to 2007, the number of students enrolled in a mathematics major in Australian universities fell by about 15 per cent.

- The number of students taking advanced maths at high school fell by 27 per cent between 1995 and 2007.

- Industry demand for mathematics and statistics graduates was predicted to grow by 3.5 per cent a year until 2013.

- A positive attitude towards maths drops by half between Year 4 and Year 8.

- In 2007, 40 per cent of senior maths teachers did not have three years of university study.

Professor Dowd said the shortage of maths and science teachers also needed to be addressed, in order to ensure students were being taught by highly skilled teachers who were passionate about science and maths.

"The Government is offering all sorts of programs and incentives (to students) but it hasn't made much difference," he said.

Professor David Blair, director of the University of Western Australia-based Australian International Gravitational Research Centre, said: "Students from China have got a vastly greater depth of mathematical understanding, and I have to say that must be a reflection of the declining standards here."