The end of the matriculation exam in mathematics: even high school students are already afraid of it, the decline in interest has been deepening over the years

Mathematics remains a traditional “spook” and nothing seems to be changing. However, what has changed dramatically is that the vast majority of children no longer even demonstrate their knowledge of mathematics at the end of secondary school studies. The number of pupils who sign up for matriculation in mathematics has fallen significantly in the last decade, even at grammar schools and lyceums. The rest who try it, the results get worse in recent years.

According to data from the state organization Cermat, 75,609 first-time matriculation students are applying for the spring matriculation exam, 5.4 percent more than last year. A high school diploma in Czech is compulsory for all, the second subject is chosen by students between mathematics and a foreign language.

This started a decline years ago, which is now striking, so to speak. Only 18.2 percent of high school graduates chose mathematics this year. Apart from a few hundred high school graduates who chose other languages, the rest in the common part of the high school graduation chose English. From the point of view of numbers, mathematics is actually a success, a thousand more students applied for mathematics than last year. And in 2022, the limit even fell to only 17%.

However, the long-term trend is ruthless. As shown by Cermat data, over the last decade, the proportion of mathematics graduates dropped from almost 40% to the aforementioned 18%. The drop is more dramatic among boys, from 50 to 20%. In secondary vocational schools, only around 10% of pupils choose mathematics compared to 35% ten years ago, while in the case of grammar schools the drop is more moderate from 37 to 30%. For example, at lyceums, however, again from 40 to only 15%.

Last year, students had the worst results in mathematics, when 12.4 percent of students who graduated for the first time failed the spring matriculation exams. In 2022, it was 10.1 percent of pupils. Pupils’ results in mathematics deteriorate in the third year, but they are not worse than in 2020, when 17.6 percent of pupils failed, according to the annual report of the Czech School Inspectorate.

Periodically, the idea of ​​bringing back the mandatory high school diploma in mathematics, or the question of whether it is not better to go the way of improving teaching, resurfaces. “This situation is a disaster for the future of technical education in the Czech Republic. But we have to start not with the students, but with the teachers! The content and method of teaching mathematics in schools needs a major reform, which must begin at the faculties of education. The debate always ends with funding, not quality.” https://twitter.com/ZdenekHorak76/status/1787777909081399674 for example, the drop in interest in matriculation in mathematics, the rector of the Polytechnic University in Jihlava, Zdeněk Horák.

According to the analyst of the non-profit organization EDUin, Nikola Šrámková, the more frequent choice of a high school diploma in English as opposed to mathematics is influenced by a number of factors, for example, she mentioned a higher possibility of application in the future. According to her, another factor is fear, as the success rate in mathematics is lower in the long term. “There is also a difference in the approach to the teaching methods of these subjects from primary school onwards, which can lead to students feeling better prepared in English and therefore more confident,” said Šrámková.