AMSI Declares it's Time to Stem the Tide of Science Complacency. (August 3, 2013)

The Australian Mathematical Sciences Institute (AMSI) has issued a statement strongly backing the new Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) Strategy launched by Australia's Chief Scientist this week.

In an address to the National Press Club, Australia's Chief Scientist, Prof. Ian Chubb, unveiled a strategy that calls for "A Better Australia" - where there is a widespread increase in STEM literacy throughout the community - by the year 2025.

AMSI Director, Prof. Geoff Prince, has welcomed the new strategy.  In particular he warns of the urgency needed in addressing the decline in maths and stats literacy in the Australian community.

AMSI notes that Professor Chubb agrees with US counterparts: "no entity as vast, interconnected, and diverse as the science and engineering enterprise can successfully operate on autopilot perpetually." And it strongly supports the Chief Scientist’s call for a national STEM policy and an enhanced PMSEIC to oversee it. 

In the statement Prof. Prince argued that: "In a federation like Australia there is an even greater need for such a policy. We already suffer because school and university education come under different jurisdictions – with a real STEM policy we would identify the endemic shortage of maths teachers in each state for what it is: a national shortage of maths graduates."

AMSI's discipline profile found that the number of high-school teachers teaching mathematics out of field (this means they are not qualified to teach mathematics) rose from 47% in 2007 to 52.8% in 2010. "For Australia to remain globally competitive our school children need to be inspired by teachers passionate about the discipline. A vital part of investment must be included at all levels of the STEM enterprise: from early childhood education through to innovative research," Prof. Prince said.

• In 2010 the Australian Industry group said more than 75% of employers responding to a survey reported that their businesses were effected by low levels of literacy and numeracy.
   

• Brick laying apprentices within a regional TAFE showed that 75% could not do basic arithmetic such as adding numbers with decimals or subtraction requiring 'borrowings'. Of those apprentices, 80% could not calculate the area of a rectangle, or the pay owed for working four and a half hours. And 20% could not interpret millimetre measurements from a centimetre/imperial calibrated tape measure.
   

• The number of graduates in mathematical science degrees is also about half the OECD average.
   

• In 2006, The National Strategic Review of Mathematical Sciences research in Australia reported that Australian CEOs said that graduates from science, engineering and allied degrees did not have the necessary maths skills for the positions they applied for.

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