The subject has established itself in the media agenda after publication of alarming figures on the imbalances of choice of this matter in high school. A committee of nine experts should audition the actors of the discipline.
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What should be the place of mathematics in the formation of high school students, and, if so, how can it be given to them? It is to this question that a “expert committee” should be answered on mathematics, including Jean-Michel Blanquer announced the creation, Thursday, February 17, in an e-mail addressed to teachers, the heads of institutions and inspectors of national education.
In this email, that Le Monde could consult, the Minister of Education indicates that the first meetings will take place “next week” with the associations of professors, the learned societies, but also the federations of parents students and representatives of the students themselves. “Realistic and effective scenarios for improving the supply of mathematics teaching” will then have to be given to the minister, with a rather brief deadline, so as not to strike the reserve period observed before the electoral deadlines of April.
According to our information, this committee will be driven by Pierre Mathiot, director of Sciences Po Lille and architect of the reform of the bac and high school. It will be accompanied by neuropsychologist Stanislas Dehaene, General Inspectors Charles Torossian, Brigitte Hazard and Jean-Charles Ringard – the latter being the former co-pilot of high school reform. Edouard Geffray, the Director General of School Education (DGESCO), will also be part of the group.
Math became a political subject
The creation of this committee occurs while the place of mathematics in high school has won the public debate, in the election campaign. According to data published between December 2021 and January 2022 by national education, mathematics lost 18% of the total volume of hours taught since the reform. The discipline, deemed difficult and now not mandatory from the first, is predominantly chosen by boys from favored categories.
These elements, published in the press, had early transformed the maths on a political issue, which seized the candidates for the presidential election Valérie Pécresse and Eric Zemmour. Behind the real decline or assumed maths in high school, we readly reads the fear of a decline in the scientific competitiveness of France, but also a degraded image, internationally, the skills of its students who rank the last European Countries in The latest TIMSS survey on the level in mathematics. Jean-Michel level Blanquer has endeavored to extinguish the controversy by advancing, on February 6th on CNEWS, the possibility of “evolving” the place of mathematics in high school, expanding the two hours of scientific teaching provided every week to all high school students.
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