Maths Problems
Australian schools are presiding over a DUMBING DOWN of our children in the area of Mathematics.
Each year since 1995, more and more Year 12 Mathematics students in Australia opt for studying lower levels of Mathematics than the students of the previous year.
By 2004:
- Only 34.3% of Year 12 students studied Mathematics at Intermediate or Advanced Levels. In other words, two thirds of our Year 12 students leave school with only rudimentary Maths skills.
- The proportion of students only studying at Elementary Level had climbed to 46%.
- And tragically, an incredible19.7% didn’t study Mathematics at all.
For the ten years 1995–2004, the changes in the numbers of students presenting for Year 12 mathematics in Australia can be summarised as follows:
- The proportion of students taking advanced mathematics dropped from 14.1% of the Year 12 student population in 1995 to 11.7% in 2004.
- The proportion of students taking intermediate mathematics (but not advanced mathematics) dropped from 27.2% of the Year 12 student population in 1995 to 22.6% in 2004.
- The proportion of students taking elementary mathematics (but not intermediate or advanced mathematics) rose from approximately 37% of the Year 12 student population in 1995 to approximately 46% in 2004.
The Long-Term Impact of Poor Maths Skills
A friend of mine recently completed a Nursing Degree. Of the 185 students who started the course, only 35 completed it. Most of the 150 dropouts left because they didn’t know enough basic fraction and decimal skills to pass their drug calculations test.
And, one of our clients who was studying for a Nursing Degree was the only student in his class to get full marks in his drug calculation test – every other student in the course had to re-sit the exam.
This problem extends into most other degrees which don’t have Mathematics at Year 12 as a pre-requisite. When I studied Psychology many years ago, many students failed the compulsory Statistics subjects because of poor Maths skills. Most degrees at university level include subjects on Statistics.
What This Means For Your Child
Do you want your child to go to university if he/she chooses to?
Do you want your child to get the degree he/she studies for – or to drop out?
If you answered yes to both of these questions, I suggest the following:
- You make sure that your child is in the top 10% of his/her class in Maths (and Science) right through school. If the school does not give grades then make sure your child is operating well above average and is encountering no difficulties that you can’t fix.
- Your child’s Maths grades should never get below a B, and should preferably be an A every time.
- If you don’t know what to do to fix your child’s problem contact us and we will help you fix it.
- Do not delay doing something about the problem – people do not grow out of Maths problems.
To find out more about Our Mathematics Programs click here.
By Chris Brooks
Principal
High Performance Learning
Go back to Catalog of Articles