update

The domestic UK supply of mathematically competent manpower is in such decline that in many areas (including teaching, commercial specialist requirements, post-doctoral fellows and appointments to academic positions) we are now dependent on trawling recruits from other countries for “bread-and-butter” appointments (not just for “key” personnel).

Nobody can write like the Brits, nobody. They're unbelievable. (I have GOT to go TRAWLING on the UK ed web sites to find out exactly how they do what they do.)

Have you ever in your life seen a government report in the U.S. produce language like this?

The answer is no.

ok, problem spotted

There are serious shortcomings at the level of individual government departments and agencies. But our failure to nurture the home-grown talent we need has been exacerbated by a consistent failure to coordinate policy between different agencies.

They may write better than we do, but thus far the content is just as stupid.

Sorry.

That was harsh.

it gets worse

(i) We have failed to recognise that the effectiveness of curriculum and assessment change (which is the responsibility of QCA) depends on providing appropriate training and support (CPD) for teachers (whichis the responsibility of the DfES, the TTA and the Strategies).

(ii) We have not faced up to the conflicts between

(a) the official goal of improving the career structure for home-grown post-doctoral fellows (which was the apparent reason for increasing research funding as part of the Treasury’s response to the Roberts review);
(b) the effect of EU law (or its current interpretation) on the way the consequent substantial increase in EPSRC funding is being used;
(c) the local pressures on university departments which arise from this more generous EPSRC funding; and
(d) the effective pressures imposed by the HEFCE controlled research assessment exercise and EU employment law on university administrations and on academic appointment practices.

I take it back.

This is much dumber than the stuff we put out.

let me see if I've got this straight

How could that be?

These reports and the published government responses, have subsequently led to significant initiatives by government and its agencies. It would be comforting to conclude that “the nature of the problem has been understood and is being robustly tackled”.

....the rest of the introduction [of the DfES response to the Smith report] includes a succession of statements (such as that “achievement in mathematics at . . . KS3 is the highest it has ever been”), which indicate that the nature and seriousness of the problem have simply not been grasped (we give clear evidence of this relating to KS3 below). This negative impression is strengthened by such facts as that the flagship policy of establishing a “National Centre for Excellence in Mathematics Teaching” is being “implemented” with an emasculated budget.

OK, why don't I just read ahead until I find some actual content.

I do like the scare quotes around the word 'implemented,' though.

this is interesting

....some of Smith’s recommendations (such as the need for a serious reduction in the proportion of mathematics time devoted to “data-handling”, and the urgent need to consider the introduction of “incentives” to increase numbers taking A level mathematics) have not been pursued in the way the mathematics and mathematics education communities had expected.

Less data-handling.

The whole entire point of Trailblazers is all data-handling all the time; the curriculum was originally titled TIMS, for Teaching Integrated Mathematics and Science. It's just pure data, every step of the way.

Data and investigations.

this is good

The mathematical community constitutes an increasingly important “micro-culture” within modern society. Hence the different parts of this community need to be structured and sustained so that this micro-culture can “reproduce itself” in a routine and orderly way, passing on to the next generation that which is known to be of value, while at the same time facilitating the development and application of new methods and techniques to serve business, management and society in general. Instead the routine reproduction of mathematical culture in the UK has been allowed to decay.

[snip]

In the whole of the UK there were around 85 000 A level mathematics entries in 1989; 66 000 in 2001; and just 54 000 in 2002. This has led to a concomitant decline in the number of competent undergraduates and graduates in highly numerate disciplines, and hence to a shrinking of the basic “pool” from which competent workers in areas that increasingly require serious mathematical skills (including mathematics teachers) can subsequently be drawn.