Thu, Jun 05, 2014 page1

• Academicians upset by planned math cuts

  • By Lee I-chia / Staff reporter
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  Nearly 100 members of Academia Sinica have signed a petition against halving the required number of mathematics credits for senior-high school students as proposed in the draft 12-year national education program guidelines.

  They said the reduced course load would weaken the nation’s competitiveness.

  Four mathematicians who are also members of Academia Sinica held a press conference at National Taiwan University (NTU) in Taipei yesterday to announce that the petition, which calls on the government to reconsider its plan.

  

  Academia Sinica academician Lin Chang-shou speaks at a press conference in Taipei yesterday about proposals to revamp the nation’s mathematics coursework.

  Photo: CNA

  The petition has been signed by 93 academicians, including renowned historian Yu Ying-shih (余英時) and former Academia Sinica president Lee Yuan-tseh (李遠哲).

  “Mathematics is widely recognized as a fundamental tool of science and technology” and a “math course is not only about attaining mathematical knowledge, but, more importantly, about training one in logical thinking and deductive ability,” the petition says.

  Under the draft guidelines, the number of required math credits would be cut from 24 to 12 hours.

  Math courses will only be required up to the first semester of grade 11 and become electives afterward, but “no country only requires senior-high school students to take math courses until the 11th grade,” NTU math professor Lin Chang-shou (林長壽) said.

  “Allowing students to have one-and-a-half years where they do not have to take a math course could be seen as the state giving up on them,” he said.

  While students from better-off families might be able reinforce their math education, students from disadvantaged families will be deprived of adequate education that could help them enter better universities, Lin said.

  Yau Shing-tung (丘成桐), a former Harvard University professor and a Fields Medal winner, said the plan would damage the cultivation of Taiwan’s talented youngsters, because mathematics is the basis for excelling in science, engineering and other disciplines.

  Yau showed journalists a letter from a Harvard professor about Taiwan’s plan to reduce the math course requirement, which reads: “that is shocking. In the US, high-tech companies are complaining that math education is too weak … have they considered what downgrading the role of math in high schools will do to Taiwan’s economic health?”

  “Mathematic ability usually takes a long time to build up, so it is harder to reinforce the students’ ability after they enter college,” Harvard professor Yau Horng-tzer (姚鴻澤) said.

  “But as more aspects of life are being digitalized, mathematic ability is becoming ever more important in various fields, including finance, biostatistics and big data,” Yau said.

  National education should at least provide students with the basic ability to understand mathematics, and good mathematic skills also create high value-added industry for the nation, because the global trend is toward more dependence on digitalized technology, Yau said.

  The petition’s supporters believe senior-high students should have at least four required credits of math each semester, two sets of math education programs designed for senior-high students of different learning orientations, and at least one math class per day for elementary and junior-high students, Lin said.

  A mechanism to enhance the training of mathematics teachers to ensure teaching quality is also key, Lin said.
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