HSC students drop maths, science and the humanities

By Mary Fogarty

The Board of Studies has recently released a report on the preliminary entries for the new HSC. It has revealed that the proportion of entries in mathematics, science and the humanities has dropped. This has tremendous implications for staffing and faculty organisation in all secondary schools and colleges.

More than 4000 fewer students have chosen to study Board-developed mathematics, probably due to the elimination of the lower level courses. More than 2500 fewer students are taking science courses under the new HSC. Numbers taking biology have dropped by 1700 students, a decline of nine per cent. It is ironic that this report was released on the same day that world leaders applauded the most significant breakthrough ever in scientific research, the complete mapping of the human genome.

Almost 2000 fewer students are taking humanities based subjects in the new HSC. The number of entries in modern history has declined by more than 1000 students, which could be attributed to the loss of the People and Events course. Interestingly enough, ancient history has increased by 700 entries. Mike Paige, the Federation's History Board Curriculum Committee (BCC) representative attributes this to the ancient history syllabus and exam format remaining largely unchanged.

More than 1800 fewer students have elected to study geography under the new HSC. The new geology course, Earth and Environmental Science, attracted more than 2000 entries, an increase of about 1800 over the old geology course. The Geography BCC was most concerned about the similarity in content between geography and the environmental science course and presumably many potential geography students have opted for the newer course.

There has been a two per cent overall decline in language entries. This is a worrying trend given the proliferation of beginners, continuers and extension courses in languages under the new HSC. Another worrying trend is the decrease in the number of female entries in technology courses from 40 per cent in 1999 to 36 per cent in 2000. The percentage of females in the new computing courses is lower than expected. In 1999 the proportion of females studying preliminary computing studies was 40 per cent. In 2000 this has reduced to 31 per cent. The overall entries in the technology area were up, however, by 2560.

The fact more than 25,000 students elected to do the advanced English course compared to only 17,000 attempting the Related English course in 1999, is being cited by the Board as evidence that "rigour and higher standards" have been embraced by students and teachers alike. The reality is that the Board's own supporting material suggests higher marks are to be obtained through attempting the advanced course and students are chasing UAI marks. The new English as a Second Language course has only attracted 1963 entries which would suggest many of our non-English speaking background students are attempting the standard course.

The most significant change is in the vocational education and training (VET) area. The number of students entered in at least one VET course in the preliminary year was 12,580 in 1999 as against 20,400 in 2000.

The percentage of preliminary entries in VET courses rose from 1.5 per cent in 1999 to 5.7 per cent in 2000. It should be noted that hospitality attracts the highest candidature in the VET area with more than 8000 candidates.

The report states "the large increase in VET entries indicates that one of the key reforms of the HSC is well on the way to being achieved". With over one third of all VET candidates choosing hospitality, I'm not sure this is exactly what Barry McGaw had in mind for HSC students when charged with Shaping Their Future.

Mary Fogarty is Federation's secondary representative on the Board of Studies.

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