Maths drop-out rate that could kill cheap university dream

A worrying drop-out rate in this crucial subject could block many Queensland school leavers from discounted degrees at university next year.

A BRAIN drain of students ditching high-level maths could block Queensland school leavers from discounted degrees at university next year.

Nearly a third of senior students are dropping out of the intermediate Maths Methods subject – a prerequisite for many engineering, medical and science degrees – before the end of Year 12.

The record rate of subject withdrawals, revealed in new data obtained exclusively by The Courier-Mail yesterday, comes as the Federal Government slashes the cost of university STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths) degrees to prepare Australia for a hi-tech future.

Nearly 4500 Queensland students who enrolled in Maths Methods at the start of Year 11 in 2019 have dumped the subject and downgraded to the simpler General Mathematics and basic Essential Mathematics. And 640 Specialist Maths students ditched the most difficult subject, with 16 per cent dropping out.

The number of Year 11s choosing the easiest Essential Mathematics has soared 45 per cent, from 12,687 last year to 18,431 this year. Only 3715 Year 11 students chose Specialist Maths this year – 5 per cent fewer than last year.

The Queensland Curriculum and Assessment Authority has blamed the brain drain on a harder syllabus, and the introduction of an external exam at the end of Year 12 that will count for half a student’s overall result.

QCAA chief executive Chris Rider said in previous years, 21 per cent of students would switch from Maths B – the old version of Maths Methods – between Years 11 and 12.

“With the introduction of new syllabuses and changes to tertiary entrance, some fluctuations in enrolments were to be expected,’’ Mr Rider said yesterday.

State Education Minister Grace Grace said Queensland had “maintained or increased participation in senior secondary STEM subjects, including Mathematics B and Mathematics C, from 2015 to 2019”.

“Queensland is not behind the rest of the country in terms of maths,” she said.

Originally published as Maths drop-out rate that could kill cheap university dream