There are no longer mathematicians who want to be teachers. There have been places left unfilled and, according to the CSIF, 300 teachers are missing from the subject despite the fact that the degree is studied in 34 faculties
The forties will remember that in COU it was said that the only way out for graduates in Mathematics was to become professors. Today, however, reality has changed radically: there are no longer mathematicians who want to teach. Perhaps because they are too busy making money in the technology sector and enjoy full employment in a country that is still fighting unemployment. One of the most impressive data left by the oppositions to professor in all Spain is that there have been places left unfilled. According to the CSIF union, 300 teachers of mathematics are missing, despite the fact that the degree is already studied in 34 faculties. So there is no quarry to train children who, in the future, should aspire to the degrees with the best outlets in science and technology. How did we get here? The answers are complex, but all the experts agree that the situation is so worrisome as to organize a national table with representation of the deans of Mathematics, secondary teachers, trade unions, the Ministry, the Royal Spanish Society of Mathematics and the autonomous communities. Many of them, by the way, could resort to that of «we told you so». Because that’s the way it has been. They already appeared in Congress in the failed State Pact for Education and gave the alarm signal. Nobody ignored them. Agustín Carrillo, spokesperson for the Spanish Federation of Mathematics Teachers (FESPM), certified the trend: «Teaching is being the last option for many engineers or architects, who do not do it by vocation». Coincides Francisco Marcellán, president of the Royal Mathematical Society of Spain (RSME): «They give a mathematics class as a discard of other options».
MATHEMATICS DO NOT WANT TO GIVE CLASS BECAUSE THEY ALREADY MAKE MONEY IN THE TECHNOLOGICAL SECTOR AND ENJOY FULL EMPLOYMENT
There is almost no trace in the classrooms of mathematicians or physicists, two degrees that, right now, attract the brightest students of the Bachillerato. Nobody wants to end their days in an institute class: they have the feeling that teaching is not valued by society as it should. «The private company claims mathematicians by the way of thinking, of addressing problems, of reasoning,» says Mario Fioravanti, president of the deans of mathematics in Spain. Lucas Górtazar, expert in the analysis of educational systems, puts the accent on the system of oppositions, which he criticizes as «unhelpful» in order to calibrate the reasoning competence that would be necessary in a classroom. The private company rewards mathematicians for virtues that are not valued in competitions, with a agenda that has not changed for 25 years. That is why -explain the detractors of the system- would be necessary a national commission to align the plans of the degrees, the masters, the Bachillerato and the oppositions. How is it possible that engineers, architects or chemists can not with the agenda of the opposition? «The weight of mathematics in these grades has decreased a lot with Bologna,» explains Marcellán. On the other hand, Carrillo warns that those professors, even having the Master of Learning, arrive at the institute and ask not to teach mathematics in Baccalaureate because they are not comfortable. In addition, some who call from the interim bags endure just a few days teaching. «Everything is related», explains Mario Gutiérrez, in charge of Teaching in CSIF, a union that has also asked for a change in the oppositions. «It is true that, from the outset, salaries in teaching are not bad compared to the first ones received in the private sector, «says Gutiérrez. «But in Mathematics, engineering or Physics, things change over time. What promotion prospects are there in teaching? Why have they ceased to call places of high school professor? ».
SINCE I WAS 12 YEARS OLD, I KNEW THAT I WANTED TO BE A MATH PROFESSOR
Joaquín Hernández, from IES San Juan Bautista (Madrid)
Agustín Carrillo adds another pessimistic note: in Andalusia, technological baccalaureates are closing. Without this raw material, what will be the quarry that feeds the bench of teachers of Mathematics? So far, no action has been taken. The vicious circle continues its course: there are no teachers who put the students on the profiles most demanded by the market. «In the Educational Pact we already said what was happening. There is a deficit in the labor market of technological profiles, as the European Union has warned, «he concludes. Facing so much pessimism, veterans like Joaquín Hernández, a professor at IES San Juan Bautista in Madrid, still resist. «Since I was 12 years old, I knew I wanted to be a teacher of Mathematics,» he says. He has trained Olympians in mathematics. He has encouraged those who thought themselves incapable of approving. After 40 years of teaching, you could retire, but you do not want to. C Each time they are less like him.