National Education > General National Education Discussion

NSW to make maths compulsory again for year 11 and 12.

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DrDusk:

--- Quote from: zuijinde on October 24, 2019, 05:52:16 pm ---I personally believe English should be compulsory but not included in the top 4 (I think this goes for HSC as well, where your English score can drastically affect your ATAR).
Yes, although the compulsion of English doesn't really 'benefit' a lot of people, there are still components where I believe IS beneficial to students (like textual analysis and oral presentations).

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I love debating this =).

Well for me in the HSC we had just 1 oral presentation, spending a week or two preparing a presentation doesn't really give anyone enough confidence or knowledge to be able to significantly contribute to ones ability in giving an oral presentation.

I would love to know why you think it's beneficial, if you don't mind expanding =)

The knowledge I gained from the course is obviously not beneficial to anything I'm studying. Now one would argue the "skills" you get in English is what really matters, but really we spend four years of our high school life doing compulsory English(excluding year 11 and 12). By that time most of the people who wanna go into Stem have already learnt more than enough skills than is needed for their future studies/careers.

A famous quote by The Einstein himself comes to mind
"If you judge a fish by it's ability to climb a tree, it will live it's whole life believing that it is stupid."

DrDusk:

--- Quote from: fun_jirachi on October 24, 2019, 05:23:44 pm ---While I share the same view of hating the fact that English is compulsory, and it not being interest-based, I feel as though making maths compulsory is not the solution that makes things suddenly 'fair'.
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Yeah I know your right =(, but I just had to rant somewhere haha. Two wrongs don't make a right

caffinatedloz:
While I can see what Aaron and Dr Dusk are saying. I personally feel that the more choice students have in their subjects, the better. If a student does maths because they have to, they aren't going to put as much into it as if it was a subject they enjoyed. They also aren't going to get much (if anything) out of it, if they hate it and choose not to try.


--- Quote from: Aaron on October 24, 2019, 06:07:56 pm ---Many students at my schools i've worked at (that i've spoken to) state to me they choose to do mathematics (e.g. general) because they correctly recognise the need for this, to get a good job and be successful. Some just hate the idea of maths altogether and that's fine, but we can't ignore the fact it is absolutely fundamental.

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I completely agree with this, but I think the way that students have to decide for themselves that they think maths is important means that they will be more likely to work hard. If no one forces them to take it, but they recognise its importance, then they can remind themselves that they made the choice to motivate themselves.

Joyn02:
While I think choice is important, I don't think it's the best argument in this case. If we allowed all students 'choice' I doubt the majority of us would've stayed in school past year 8.

I agree with Aaron. Maths is so much more than memorising formulas and plugging numbers into equations. Both English and Maths teach important skills and I don't think either should be neglected.

I personally know two people who have graduated without doing any maths past year 10, and both to some extent regretted their decision later on. I know anecdotal evidence isn't the strongest but I'm sure there are many more cases like these.

I think both English and Maths should be made compulsory until year 12, but I just don't think it must count towards your primary 4.

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