Teach Maths Effectively or Generations of Australians Will be Ill-Equipped for the Modern Economy. (February 8, 2012)

So says a guy who should know. 2011 Physics Nobel Laureate, Brian Schmidt.

Jill Rowbotham in today's Australian reports Professor Schmidt as telling the Maths for the Future forum which is being run by the Australian Mathematical Science Institute (AMSI) yesterday and today that "either we skill up to teach mathematics effectively at high school or produce generations of Australians ill-equipped for the modern economy and especially for its top jobs".

And the ANU astrophysicist told his audience: "If you get left behind at high school, nothing we do at university will save you; it's just not going to happen... To do a highly skilled job you need maths." He went on to emphasise that primary teachers needed to be able to pass on basic skills," and sure, "Not everyone needs calculus, but everyone needs a certain level of proficiency [but it's important to] make sure the skill set of the teachers at primary level is there and, if not, we need to train them up."

Then as regards secondary school students they need: "to be taught by people who are specialists in the curriculum, people who have done a considerable amount of maths at university, such as calculus and algebra. The evidence is that many teachers have that competency, but some do not. And every time we have someone who does not, we lose those classes (of students)."

__________________________________

On Tuesday February 7 Professor Schmidt addressed  the Australian Mathematical Sciences Institute forum at the Australian National University in Canberra in which he set out to demonstrate that: Everyone in Australia - and I mean everyone - needs to be mathematically literate, or numerate as we like to say, and our country needs many people to be more than numerate: we need people to be highly skilled.

Click here To read his address in full.

___________________________________

This past January 20^th the Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, announced that there would be a "Revitalised Prime Minister's Science Council", and referred to it as "Australia’s peak science advisory body". PMSEIC hasn't met in over a year, and while it is claimed to now meet three times a year, the date for the first of these meetings of the revitalised PMSEIC is yet to be announced.

And what is surely a travesty the: "Six individual standing members, chosen for their contributions to science and research" do not include Brian Schmidt.