By Bernard Marr
Look around and chances are you’ll see change everywhere. It’s in our workplaces, homes, and schools – all driven by the speed at which technology is advancing. Keeping up with this level of digital transformation can be overwhelming, and many have turned to STEM subjects as a potential fix for the next generation’s understanding of the world in which we now find ourselves. But with the UK government recently announcing plans for all pupils to study maths to age 18, are we really equipping our children with the best skillset for the future, or should we be focusing our attention elsewhere?
It’s unlikely that an extra few years of studying maths are suddenly going to persuade a whole generation of students to become engineers or data scientists. Rather, I fear it will have the opposite effect, especially for those who struggle with the subject, and be an extra burden for teachers who are already experiencing the impact of staff shortages. Like many industries, the education sector is currently struggling with recruitment. Qualified maths teachers are in short supply, with the government themselves reducing their quota for maths trainees by 27 per cent, from 2,800 to 2,040*. Whilst we wait to see how these proposals will play out, it’s clear that putting additional pressures on both pupils and teachers may cause more problems than benefits in the long-term.
Preparing the next generation for the future requires a rethink. More than ever our children need a better understanding of the practicalities and application of mathematics in everyday life for tasks like budgeting, dividing cooking recipes, and recognising the impact of interest rates for credit cards and mortgages to make important decisions in the next stage of their lives.
Technology has the power to make our lives easier and allow us to focus on what we enjoy doing most of all. We already have AIs that are able to write computer code and solve mathematical equations based on us speaking to them. And machines will only become more capable in the future.
So, instead of trying to replicate a computer’s capabilities, I believe we should focus on teaching our children soft skills like creativity, empathy, and critical thinking – all things that are not easily copied by machines and will thus be incredibly valuable and desirable in the future of work.
Soft skills enable us to see the world in a different way and be creative with how we solve problems. Technology, for example, is all about coming up with new ideas and solutions, and critical thinking skills enable us to go beyond analysing numbers without context to discussing the limitations of the information, questioning how our biases impact our understanding and analysis, and experimenting with the key statistical tools we need to turn data into insights. Instead of talking about the importance of STEM education in isolation, we should also be highlighting the link between creativity and more numerical subjects, and providing opportunities for young people to be artistic to lay the foundations for the types of creative thinking and problem-solving that are necessary for success.
In the digital age, we will all need to become more confident working with technology and enhance our skillset to match the modern world, but not at the expense of our interests and curiosity. Teachers who can nurture a child’s passion and help them to retain the ability to question everything will be preparing them for a bright future. Encourage your students to take up new hobbies, read books beyond the set curriculum, and remember the power of the word ‘yet’ to show that there’s always more than can be learnt so long as they’re passionate and willing to try.
Bernard Marr is a futurist, strategic advisor to companies and governments and award-winning author of new book Future Skills: The 20 Skills and Competencies Everyone Needs to Succeed in a Digital World(Wiley, out now).
* Source: TES Magazine.
