Maths in high school: a report recommends their reinforcement and their return to the common core

Since the high school reform in 2019, teachers have been alarmed by a drop in the number of first and final year students taking this subject, especially among girls.

In recent months, the subject has taken a controversial turn, with associations of mathematics teachers calling for consultation.

The creation of a committee of experts, in the wake of this debate, leads to the reintroduction of mathematics where Minister Jean-Michel Blanquer had chosen to make them optional.

According to this report, the idea is to "develop the share of mathematics in primary science education, renamed science and mathematics education (ESM), for students who have not taken the mathematics specialty".

"The scientific teaching of the first class, of a current weekly duration of 2 hours, is increased to 3h30 or 4 hours per week, i.e. an addition of 1h30 or 2 hours of mathematics, from the next start of the school year, for students who have not taken the mathematics specialty", according to the committee.

"A program of + mathematics for all + is deployed" and "must allow all students to master at the end of first year both basic mathematical techniques and the tools essential to the understanding and elementary modeling of quantitative phenomena, whether they fall under statistics, probability or analysis,” according to the report.

At the same time, "the first year science education program is reworked, in order to give mathematics back its place as the common language of science, by removing artificial and unnecessarily complex mathematical situations".

Experts also recommend a revision of the math program for the second class for the start of the 2023 school year.

They propose that in the course of the year 2022-2023 "national mathematics meetings be organized bearing, in a perspective of international comparison, on the different approaches to this discipline in middle school and high school and integrating into its scientific committee the actors who carry this reflection at the national level, in particular those whom our committee has heard".

On the side of the ministry, we explain "to put ourselves in a position to be able to give a favorable follow-up to this report from the next school year if this choice is confirmed, on the occasion of the next term of office".

This reinforced scientific and mathematical education would guarantee, according to the rue de Grenelle, "all students in the general route the mastery of the fundamental mathematical notions that they will need (...). It would also allow interested students to continue their mathematical training in the final year by the choice of the optional teaching of complementary mathematics".

For Mélanie Guénais, vice-president of the Mathematical Society of France, "the recommendations of this report do not correspond at all to the requests. Integrating math into science does not make it possible to address all aspects of the subject, it's a shame “, she regretted.

"To give only between 1 hour 30 and 2 hours in addition to maths, it will not be enough to upgrade, it is illusory", she added.

© 2022 AFP