The French are losing their mathematical skills, concludes Le Figaro on the basis of new statistics published by the Office for Evaluation, Forecasting and Performance (DEPP). This organization studied in detail the choice of specialization made by students in the penultimate and final grades after the reform of the Matura. According to this study, in the 2021-2022 school year, only 37% of students chose to continue their studies in mathematics as one of the two specialized subjects in addition to the compulsory and bilingual subjects.
According to the French newspaper, before the reform, students had no choice: 85% of them had to study mathematics until the end of school. In the newspaper La Croix of November 24, the president of the Association of Mathematics Teachers in Public Educational Institutions Sebastian Planchno complained that after the reform of the exams, students "either do mathematics at the expert level or do not do it at all."
The article raises the question: Should we worry about the fact that young people are increasingly abandoning mathematics? This subject, which is sometimes difficult for many, causes such fear, so that in primary and secondary school the level of knowledge in it continues to decline. According to the latest data from the International Monitoring Survey on the Quality of School Mathematics and Science Education (TIMSS), France ranks last among European countries in 7th grade mathematics, despite the fact that the country has previously raised brilliant mathematicians who have been awarded the Fields Prize.
At the same time, this turn of events, the publication comments, can be called "revenge of the humanities": they are not lost in equations and theorems, they better understand the turmoil of the modern world, reveal its fears and find meaning in it. It is no coincidence that the most prestigious business schools and companies now accept humanities students more readily than they did 20-30 years ago.
In France, however, there is an acute shortage of engineers: every year, 35,000 young professionals graduate from 200 universities, which is not enough for applications from various companies in areas such as information and digital technology, robotics, artificial intelligence and others. According to experts, in order to solve the problems of the third industrial revolution, it is necessary to graduate not 35 but 50 thousand engineers a year. Emmanuel Perrin, director of the Polytechnic University of Lyon, confirms that in some industries the exponential increase in labor demand is due to the continuing rise in the level of technical equipment to develop new products and services. More than ever, companies need efficient and sophisticated engineers who can handle a wide range of tasks, quickly find solutions to obstacles to progress, and make the digital, environmental or social transition.
"Given the speed with which the world is changing, we assume that half of the professions that will be performed by engineers in five years do not exist today," added Perrin. However, he emphasizes that these professionals, thanks to their ability to form concepts, which is largely embedded in math lessons, can almost naturally develop their abilities to adapt to innovation. "That is why the so-called French engineers with a solid scientific base who can work effectively for the good of the company are valued not only in France but also internationally," Le Figaro was quoted as saying by the director of the Polytechnic University of Lyon.
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