April 06, 2009
The renowned quality control
expert and American statistician W. Edwards Deming is reputed to have said, when
frustrated by the slowness of others to appreciate that learning new skills was
essential for the future, that "Learning isn't compulsory, but neither is
survival". This remark came quickly to mind when I thought of the education
challenges we face in Australia, on reading of the latest round of proposals for
US National Science Foundation mathematics institutes (Science
323, p. 1548).
Australian mathematical scientists are still battling to convince federal
politicians that Commonwealth funding awarded to universities for teaching
mathematics should actually be spent on that task, rather than siphoned off for
quite different purposes. The Australian Mathematical Sciences Institute, which
is supported precariously from the budgets of cash-strapped university
departments around the country, is struggling to find the money it needs just to
survive. It is presently directorless, and seeks enough continuity to be able to
appoint, and pay, a director over the next few years.
By way of contrast, the NSF currently funds seven mathematics research centres
in the US --- the older IAS (the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton),
MSRI (Mathematical Sciences Research Institute), the IMA (Institute for
Mathematics and its Applications), and IPAM (Institute For Pure and Applied
Mathematics); and three newer centres announced in mid 2002: the MBI
(Mathematical Biosciences Institute), SAMSI (Statistical and Applied
Mathematical Sciences Institute), and AIM (the American Institute of
Mathematics). The fact that the missions of these centres cover a wide variety
of fields of the mathematical sciences, encompassing pure mathematics, applied
mathematics, statistics, and specific areas of application, reflects the
critical role that the mathematical sciences play across science, technology and
culture today, and the leadership that they will provide in the future.
A year ago the NSF issued a request for proposals for up to six centres. Four of
these opportunities might reasonably be expected to go to the four centres whose
funding would otherwise end in 2010: MSRI, the IMA, IPAM and the MBI. The other
two centres (assuming that the maximum number is supported) might respond to new
initiatives in the mathematical sciences, such as the "mathematical institute
devoted to the identification and development of mathematical talent" proposed
by Nevada Democratic Senator Harry Reid.
Reid, who has served two terms in the US House of Representatives and two in the
Senate, is a strong advocate of improving literacy and mathematics competency
among children, for example those of pre-school age. He is a supporter of the US
Early Education Act of 2009, which aims to "establish a program to help states
expand the education system to include at least one year of early education
preceding the year a child enters kindergarten."
Reid also introduced the "America COMPETES" Act, which seeks to improve
education and research in mathematics and science. Against this
background it comes as no surprise to learn that he backs a mathematics
initiative that "is aimed at serving supersmart children whose needs aren't
being met in school," to quote the Science article.
Of course, Australia's own "supersmart children" have gone on to achieve great
things in mathematics. Terry Tao immediately comes to mind; Terry quickly saw
that the demise of mathematics at the University of Southern Queensland would
impact negatively on Toowoomba's own ten year old mathematics prodigy, Adam
Walsh. The 27 year old mathematician Akshay Venkatesh, educated in Western
Australia and now at Stanford after a PhD at Princeton, is another of our young,
extraordinarily talented superstars.
Terry and Akshay will almost certainly make their careers outside Australia, in
an environment of support for science which sustains over-achievement from
pre-school to university and beyond. In Australia it is much more challenging to
convince lawmakers of the need for funding mathematics. The enrollments of young
Australians in both intermediate and advanced school mathematics continues to
decline; the proportion of school students in both programs has fallen steadily
over the last dozen years, from 27% to 21% and 14% to 10%, respectively. The
number of mathematics majors at Australian universities has dropped by 14%
during the last six years. We're neglecting not just our supersmart children,
but our average-smart and our just-plain-smart kids as well.
Peter Hall is Professor of Statistics at the University of
Melbourne.