Pre-College British Students Reportedly Lack Mathematical Skills, Sometimes Deliberately So

May 2, 2007

According to a BBC report, college-bound science students in the United Kingdom often lack the requisite mathematical skills, which forces universities to offer remedial mathematics instruction.

Richard Pike of the Royal Society of Chemistry noted in a recent paper that pre-college mathematics "is difficult." Since admittance to British universities is "governed by A-level points," students choose "easier subjects," Pike argued.

More specifically, students are deliberately avoiding harder mathematics after the age of 16. The reason is that failing mathematics courses at 17 or 18 hampers their chances of getting into college. It may also damage their schools' lofty academic reputations.

This approach, Pike noted, constrasts sharply with the attitude towards mathematics in China, for instance, where mathematics is taught to everyone up to age 18. To bring the point home, Pike offered as examples two problems from a Chinese pre-college math test.

However, William Shaw, professor of financial mathematics at King's College, presented a different picture. Shaw accused Pike of a "cheap and uninformed shot" at U.K. math teaching. Today, he said, emphasis has shifted from a "huge amount" of geometry and algebra to "more time on statistics, probability, and interpretation."

A representative of Britain's Department for Education and Skills pointed out that the number of pupils studying science and mathematics was increasing, and, at the university level, 120,000 more young people were now studying for science-related degrees than in 1997-98.

Source: BBC News, April 25, 2007; Royal Society of Chemistry