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10 reasons Australian maths skills are in decline

7 December 2016

Professor and Chair of Applied Mathematics Nalini Joshi believes Australia can reverse its decline in results and ranking but systemic change is required.

Professor Joshi took to Twitter to rundown the 10 key reasons that the country's high schoolers are falling behind the rest of the world.

Her assessment comes as a response to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development's (OECD) latest Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) and its findings that the science and mathematics skills of Australia’s high school students are in decline.

 

 

The University of Sydney is already addressing this issue and announced in February that it will be introducing mathematics prerequisites for numerous courses from 2019. This start date is to allow sufficient time for current Year 10 students to select senior subjects that fulfil the new entry requirements, will impact a range of courses, including economics, commerce, engineering and IT, psychology, pharmacy, veterinary science and science.  

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