Year 12 Mathematics Participation Report Card: Mathematics Enrolments Remain at All-time Lows
In 2020, the number of students studying calculus-based maths decreased significantly. Participation in higher mathematics dropped below 10% for the first time, to 9.2%. Participation in intermediate mathematics nosedived to 17.6%, well below its former usual participation rate above 20%. Since then, the number of students studying calculus-based mathematics has failed to recover, with participation rates of 8.9% and 9.0%, for higher mathematics and 17.8% and 17.7% for intermediate mathematics, in 2021 and 2022, respectively.
Both in the number of students as well as the proportion of the total student cohort, the participation in intermediate and higher mathematics subjects has plummeted to all-time lows in the last three years—significantly lower than the previous decade in which participation already could be described as minimal.
Altogether, in 2022 only 26.7% of students with a Year 12 qualification studied mathematics to at least intermediate level, compared to 30.6% in 2019 and 34.9% in 2008.
Only 37.5% of the students undertaking higher mathematics were female. In intermediate mathematics, the gender balance was even, with 50% female students. Around 52% of students completing Year 12 were female.