The SOMM Alliance defends the role of mathematics in high school studies

by Francisco Paños

Luis Serrano Pubul, director of the CRG and president of SOMMa, and Karel W.F. De Pourq, communication manager of SOMMa, have presented a manifesto remarking the importance of mathematics in preuniversity studies. The text has been published in El País newspaper.

Some recent news suggests that the new education law in Spain (the LOMLOE) could mean that mathematics would not be a compulsory subject in the social and technological High School curricula (Bachillerato). This possibility has provoked reactions of rejection and perplexity in the most diverse scientific environments: it is clearly inconceivable that the training of future technologists, economists or sociologists should not include mathematics, which is at the basis of scientific knowledge.

In the aim of representing this shared feeling of the scientific community, the alliance of Severo Ochoa centres and María de Maeztu units (SOMMa) has presented a manifesto defending the role of mathematics in High School studies. The text highlights not only the importance of mathematical knowledge for science and technology that is used on a daily basis, but also the relevance of the kind of logical and abstract thinking that is developed when studying mathematics. The manifesto is signed by Luis Serrano Pubul, director of the CRG and president of SOMMa, and Karel W.F. De Pourq, communication manager of SOMMa, and has appeared in the Spanish newspaper El País.

Read the whole text (in Spanish) in the SOMMa webpage.