Problems of mathematical education and its impact on the economy of Ukraine

Iryna Yehorchenko, senior researcher at the Institute of Mathematics of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, popularizer of mathematics, candidate of physical and mathematical sciences (mathematical physics) 

There is a myth that Ukraine has preserved the traditions of good mathematical education from the USSR (it is also not true that those traditions were good), and, therefore, there are no problems. There is a fact that many people with engineering education from the USSR could not find themselves in the 1990s, and on this basis a wrong conclusion is drawn that studying mathematics is unnecessary.

There is a fact that many people do not understand at all what mathematics is, and recite texts about the uselessness of studying it - although for them the word “mathematics” means some incomprehensible words from the high school curriculum. But the slogan about lack of use of mathematics (for lawyers, journalists, people of creative professions) actually turns into a slogan that absolutely basic things are not needed, and without the knowledge and understanding of these things people are dysfunctional even in simple professions and ordinary life. I saw 3 people who really did not know how to do arithmetic in 1st grade — one was a humanitarian gold medalist from an elite school, whose mother was proud that she paid for her grades in 1st grade so that her daughter would not be bothered at all, and the child was not able to add numbers within 10. The child definitely did not have any special educational needs. A gold medal holder during the independent testing times, she passed 3 humanitarian exams with high scores. Her mother paid for other good grades, on which she openly talked about. Two other such people were street vendors of greens. The latter were very embarrassed by their inability to count, making mistakes that were not in their favour (of course, I counted the cost and change correctly). These three people do not have much of an impact on the economy, but the situation when most adults do not have a real primary education is still a tragedy for the economy and national security.

Poor knowledge of basic mathematics (approximately 6th grade curriculum) is also a marker of functional illiteracy, and indicators of reading and mathematics problems for PISA and other studies correlate. This set of problems guarantees other problems with critical thinking, numeracy, gullibility, vulnerability to fraud and propaganda, and poses a threat to democracy. I have not personally encountered it, but two independent people told me about clearly illiterate young people whose parents arranged for them jobs in local administrations, in lower management positions such as heads of departments - these people were asking subordinates to read documents to them, clearly not understanding what was being written, and simply signed what the superiors told them to sign.

Now there are no barriers to entering higher education without real primary education - both previous system of independent tests and the existing system of independent multi-subject tests have very low passing scores at the level of guessing. Not everyone gets a passing score, but not everyone wins the lottery. Many of those who enter a university do not actually have primary education and cannot study, but the policy of maintaining the student numbers in higher education institutions leads to the mass receiving of higher education diplomas by individuals without a real primary education.

This supports the vicious circle of demotivation of students to study - why study when there will be education certificates anyway. Tolerance for cheating is an official educational policy; a teacher who prevents cheating will be quickly fired.

Ukraine already has problems with engineering personnel. According to the independent tests and PISA, no more than 10% of high school students actually study mathematics at a sufficient level of the “standard” program, most of whom are set on IT or scientific work abroad (in Ukraine, scientific work at the level of young scientists, even candidates of sciences without experience, means the very low minimum wage, if there is a full-time job). Many students without basic school education, unable to study, enter engineering specialties. Teachers are making curricula as primitive as possible (now they are easier than in old technical colleges), they write  course and diploma theses for students, they try to teach the school curriculum and somehow attract students - but there will be no qualified specialists. Now the problem with engineers is not so obvious, because many people are working for 50-70 years. Another 5-10 years - and there will be a catastrophe. Greater opportunities to receive grants abroad specifically for engineering specialties - an additional incentive for more capable applicants to go abroad.

The reluctance to learn mathematics is not only a Ukrainian problem, but engineers will come to the USA or Finland. The main problem is precisely motivation. Unfortunately, in Ukraine, parents of children, journalists, the Ministry of Education and Science (all the actions of the Ministry of Education and Science for the last 8 years, with a short break for Anna Novosad in office, are demotivating all participants in the educational process), book publishers (books on mathematics, except for textbooks and school-related books, are almost not published, 10 popular math books for adults have been published in Ukrainian since 1991, and 1 more is being prepared. There is nothing to give as a prize to schoolchildren-Olympiad winners now, not a single suitable book has been published for advanced high school students). Publishers say that it is unprofitable (it is profitable only for children up to 8 years old), that mathematics scares away buyers of lighter, more popular literature, and therefore it cannot be kept on the shelves. The organizers of all book forums in 2024-2025 completely ignored non-humanitarian popular science literature, but held many children's events to cultivate magical thinking (amulets, spelled wreaths, and the like). With the beginning of the full-scale invasion, all existing popular science programs were removed from the radio (there were none on television). Teachers are kept in a state of beggars who are still forced to spend a lot of money on courses, holiday scenarios, thematic plans, and the like - they do not have the money for books. Books on mathematics and natural sciences are not purchased for libraries at all - on the contrary, librarians massively withdraw previously published books on mathematics in Ukrainian (which are not at all outdated) under the pretext of obsolescence.

Further plans of the Ministry of Education and Science (profile high school) will lead to a decrease in the number of students who will study mathematics in high school to 3-5%. No students will be recruited for entire physics and mathematics classes anywhere except in large regional centers, and mathematics will not be studied de facto in other profiles. The motivation of capable students and the best teachers will also be negatively affected by the new rules for conducting Olympiads. Absurd standards have been adopted for senior specialized schools, compliance with which is impossible in principle.

The current situation contains two threats — 1) a shortage of personnel for industry and more complex activities, even relatively simple working professions require basic mathematics 2) a negative impact on critical thinking and numerical literacy in society, which creates direct risks for national security. More capable and motivated students and teachers without large funds to buy books in English use Russian pirate sites — but even popular science modern Russian literature contains propaganda. Unfortunately, for the Ukrainian humanitarian elite, their own comfort, for the support of which they do not even want to hear the word “mathematics”, is more important than the survival of the country. The development of history and fiction is wonderful, but without motivating future engineers, it will take place outside of Ukraine.

What to do - small groups of people are trying to do something. Without state support, where there is talk about STEM against the background of the destruction of physics, mathematics and natural science education. There is no influence on the government, the Ministry of Education, and the Parliament in the current conditions. This problem is not interesting for the media. They are more interested to support irresponsible people who call for the abolition of mathematics for all students, except for a small percentage of very motivated ones, in order to be able to buy their child a higher education diploma, although that child could not master the elementary school program.