Nowadays individuals are less inclined to do a degree in mathematics and it
could be said that it is at its high time low in some countries. And there is no
doubt that this phenomenon is influenced by a variety of factors. Both
governments and people can take several steps to tackle this problem.
Not being interested in fundamental science is not an unfamiliar occasion. In
fact, in most countries individuals prefer to study engineering or medicine and
competition is always intense over these majors. Also, this is the case for
humanities and linguistic majors as they are not that popular in entrance exams.
There are various reasons for this that could be mentioned. Firstly, cultural
preferences in mostly traditional families encourages adolescents to become
engineers or medics. This is one of the fundamental problems that teenagers
would eventually confront in my home country Iran and as a result, they are
forced to pursue their parents dreams instead of their own. This is an ongoing and
pervasive problem that students will face in most third world countries including
Iran. Although with the advent of social media, families have become aware that
they should support their children by any means to pursue and go on with their
own interest. Governments are also obligated to educate less literate and more
traditional parts of the nation to change their behavior towards higher education.
Therefore, it should be noted by governments that the more they teach and
correct “old school behaviors”, the more possibility there is to appeal fundamental
science such as mathematics to teenagers.
Another aspect of this situation is not having a solid career. Everybody especially
students could foresee that engineering and medicine have more high income and
more stable job opportunities . Some majors including mathematics do not
promise high quality occupation. Most companies would like to employ engineers
instead of those who have Science degrees. Thus, there is no demand for them in
industries despite the fact that mathematician have more problem-solving
abilities than engineers and could be pretty beneficial for their employers. This
could be the result of teaching flaws in universities that do not make mathematics
applicable and functional enough for industries. As far as I’m concerned, there
should be a transformation in both universities and job market to create more
demand for mathematicians in the market and also apply mathematics in
challenges facing industry to make it more appealing for them to make use of
mathematicians.
In conclusion, cultural preferences and lack of job opportunity would discourage
people to study math at universities. Both issues could be mitigated only if
government and society cooperate about it.