Undergraduate Ambassadors Scheme and Communicating and Teaching Mathematics

The author and broadcaster Simon Singh was responsible for setting up the Undergraduate Ambassadors Scheme (UAS) as a pilot project in the academic year 2002/3. The scheme was designed principally to address the vicious circle of the decline in specialist teachers available for teaching mathematics and science in schools, the consequent drop in pupils opting for these subjects, the reduced number entering university which in turn exacerbates the decline in the numbers entering the teaching profession. In a recent article in the Times (26/09/03) entitled “Science teachers could be history within a decade” the percentage of teachers teaching mathematics who have no mathematics qualification has now risen to 26% with similar worrying increases in the sciences. Moreover, the percentage of mathematics teachers who are over 50 has jumped from 20% to 31%, from 23% to 35% in chemistry and from 24% to 34% in physics since 1996 and hence the concern for the future of these subjects in schools….