Australian Mathematical Sciences Institute Continues to Fight an Uphill Battle. (June 5, 2013)

Today the Australian Mathematical Sciences Institute (AMSI) announced a new program to support mathematics teachers in rural and regional areas, beginning next month. It's part of its effort  the Maths and Science Digital Classroom project of the Regional Universities Network, funded by the Australian Maths and Science Partnerships Program.

The Institute notes that AMSI has been running intensive numeracy programs for primary and secondary teachers in rural and regional Australia since 2005. This new project will reach up to 30 mathematics teachers and 1200 students. "Specialists will work face-to-face with teachers to develop their mathematics teaching practices and content knowledge. Key to the program is a focus on mathematics careers awareness, so that teachers can better prepare students for their post-secondary choices and for entering the workforce."

According to Janine McIntosh, AMSI’s Schools Project Manager: "This is a great opportunity for AMSI to continue our work in rural and regional Australia supporting teachers and students to make the most of their mathematical potential," while Professor Geoff Prince, Director of AMSI says: "This is a timely opportunity for us to increase our support for mathematics teachers in rural and regional Australia, especially those teaching mathematics out-of-field.”

Unfortunately, what we're seeing is the support of what are in effect pilot programs which effect a small percentage of the nation's K-12 students.

As Professor Prince points out in his assessment of the The Australian Council of Learned Academies (ACOLA) report into international comparisons of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education which recommends introducing maths as a compulsory subject up to and including Year 12: “International comparison is valuable because it gives perspective to our challenges. For me the shortage of qualified maths teachers in our secondary schools is made even more serious now that we see how well-prepared and highly valued maths teachers are elsewhere. We can’t really turn around our declining enrolments in maths, physical sciences and engineering until we get on top of this teaching problem. We’ve been complacent and this study shows that."

Do we really expect either the Australian Labor Party or the conservative Coalition to  take proactive notice of what ACOLA recommends -- rather than merely citing how much more money they gave this year compared to last rather than making comparisons with our cohort nations.