“The situation is very worrying and will be catastrophic if we do nothing. » It is with these words that the president of the CNRS, Antoine Petit, alerted Monday, November 14 to the state of mathematics in France, during the opening in Paris of the assizes of the discipline, which will again become compulsory for all high school students in the general stream from the start of the 2023 school year.
“At the heart of our society”
Mr. Petit mentioned the insufficient level of French pupils in the international PISA survey and the shortage of teachers in this subject. The National Institute of Mathematical Sciences and their Interactions (Insmi), which depends on the CNRS, reported last week a “8% drop in the number of teacher-researchers in mathematics since 2020”.
The meetings, which are held until Wednesday, must identify new needs in mathematics – a specialty in which France has a reputation for excellence – and formulate proposals to meet them. “Discipline is at the heart of our company, it is crucial to meet the challenges”declared the Minister of Research, Sylvie Retailleau, citing the sciences of the climate and the environment, which require ever more advanced mathematical calculation and modeling capacities, or “life sciences for the statistical processing of data and epidemiological monitoring”.
Parity issues
A round table is devoted to societal issues in mathematics, where women are under-represented, from secondary education to research. The Minister of Education, Pap Ndiaye, thus estimated that “the future of French excellence in mathematics lies largely with girls”. “Our goal is gender parity”said the minister, who announced on Sunday the return of a teaching ” obligatory “ discipline for all high school students in 2023.
The speakers insisted on the importance of putting mathematics back at the heart of education, from an early age. “We will not be able to change things if the vision of mathematics does not change in society”, told Agence France-Presse Hugo Duminil-Copin, winner in 2022 of the prestigious Fields medal. He considered it essential that everyone has a “minimum citizen” in this matter, so that everyone “can cope with everyday life”.