Skip to Content

System of Equations. Photo credit: Antoine Dautry

Immigration: French math levels ‘constantly falling’

French politician and mathematician Cédric Villani serves as deputy in the lower house of the French parliament. He says "a very big social divide, with very big gaps between the pupils, and a deep malaise of the teachers" have been contributing to huge problems in mathematical competency.

Published: December 9, 2020, 4:30 am

    Paris

    Villani believes France may not have lost its excellence in mathematics at the highest level, but he told French daily le Parisien that the country is currently facing an implosion in math education.

    “Research is carried out by a very small number of people, and this base will always exist. France has excellent people, but in too small a quantity for the proper functioning of society, at a time of an increasingly important mathematization of professions. The level of students in math was at its best around 1990, the year I graduated. Since then it has been a constant decline.

    “Erosion [ in math competency] is not slow at all! We are seeing a large-scale shift, from which we can only recover in 5 or 6 years, at best. And for this, the main key is the training of school teachers. An example: in Korea, whose results are excellent, the number of hours of teacher training, all subjects combined, is five times higher than in France.”

    According to the results of the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (Timss) survey, carried out in May 2019 on a sample of 4 186 children in CM1 (9-year-olds) and 3 874 adolescents in Grade 4 (13 – 14 years), France ranked dead last in the countries of the European Union. In OECD countries, it was only ahead of Chile.

    France remains “significantly” below the international averages of comparable countries, the Department of Evaluation, Prospective and Performance of National Education (DEPP) noted.

    The collapse is spectacular, with an average score dropping 47 points. At the time, students in Grade 5 were also assessed, and their score was 46 points lower than in Grade 4, French daily Le Monde reported.

    Western, industrialized countries showed average gains on standard broad-spectrum IQ tests of 3 IQ points per decade between 1930 and 1990. Verbal tests showed gains of 2 IQ points per decade, and non-verbal (fluid and visual) tests showed gains of 4 IQ points per decade. Gains on specific measures, such as the Raven’s Progressive Matrices when used for the assessment of military recruits averaged about 7 IQ points per decade.

    Minsk, Belarus: Formulas on an old blackboard. Photo: Roman Mager

    Recently, however, studies from Denmark and Norway show that the gains have stopped in Scandinavia and even suggest a decline of IQ scores [Shayer, Ginsburg, & Coe, 2007; Sundet, Barlaug, & Torjussen, 2004; Teasdale & Owen, 2007]. However, an important part of the decline in IQ scores is most likely due to the increase of immigrants [Te Nijenhuis, de Jong, Evers, & van der Flier, 2004]. This may also be the case in other European countries, including France.

    The countries sorted by their average ranking in the International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO) during the last 20 years, are countries with larger populations, thus overrepresented because they have a larger pool to choose participants from. Notably, most of these countries have not welcomed immigrants in large numbers. The US, an exception, has managed to attract very talented East Asian students.

    North Korea is the fifth highest ranking country even though its population is only about 25 million and its GDP per capita is about 2 000 USD. Vietnam is the seventh highest ranking country even though its GDP per capita is also about 2 000 USD. IMO participants are high school students, as with the participants in PISA.

    1.4 People’s Republic of China
    3.2 United States of America
    3.6 Russian Federation
    4.9 Republic of Korea
    6.8 Democratic People’s Republic of Korea
    9.6 Taiwan
    9.8 Vietnam
    10.6 Japan
    11.8 Islamic Republic of Iran

    North Korea has won 19 gold medals in the IMO even though it has had a total of only 78 participants. The Nordic countries have won only 9 gold medals even though they have had a total of 1158 participants.

    In May 2020 Villani formed a new party, Ecology, Democracy, Solidarity, after leaving Macron’s LREM party. He was elected Vice President of the French Parliamentary Office for the Evaluation of Scientific and Technological Choices in July 2017.

    Consider donating to support our work

    Help us to produce more articles like this. FreeWestMedia is depending on donations from our readers to keep going. With your help, we expose the mainstream fake news agenda.

    Keep ​your language polite​. Readers from many different countries visit and contribute to Free West Media and we must therefore obey the rules in​,​ for example​, ​Germany. Illegal content will be deleted.

    If you have been approved to post comments without preview from FWM, you are responsible for violation​s​ of​ any​ law. This means that FWM may be forced to cooperate with authorities in a possible crime investigation.

    If your comments are subject to preview ​by FWM, please be patient. We continually review comments but depending on the time of day it can take up to several hours before your comment is reviewed.

    We reserve the right to del​ete​ comments that are offensive, contain slander or foul language, or are irrelevant to the discussion.

    Europe
    DESTRUCTIVE HAILSTORMS will become more frequent and violent with increasingly larger hail, predicted solar researcher Valentina Zharkova back in 2019 when she stated that it's one of many signs of an impending Grand Solar Minimum. This is exactly what we have witnessed this year in both Europe and the world. Here is the German town of Benediktbeuern in Bavaria after a hailstorm on August 26th. Almost all rooftops and cars were damaged. The centuries-old church and monastery were damaged for the first time ever. Interestingly, the monastery was rebuilt in 1699 during the Maunder Minimum. Combined with heavy rainfall, extreme weather will devastate a significant portion of our food production. For instance, heavy rainfall destroyed a quarter of all crops in Greece in just two days in September. However, mainstream media remains silent. Photo: X @safe0007/Sandor Feher

    NOAA Predicts Zero Sunspots for Almost the Whole 2030s

    CLIMATEThe United States' government scientific organization, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), predicts zero sunspots from 2031 to 2040. This is an extreme situation that has not occurred in as long as humanity has been counting sunspots, and it leads us into uncharted territory in terms of our solar system. However, this prediction aligns with the warnings of the world-renowned solar researcher Valentina Zharkova for many years, who indicated in 2019 various signs of this catastrophic phenomenon, including the extreme hailstorms we have seen in Europe and the world this summer. The forecast and various observations this year give cause for very significant concern. In this unique analysis, Free West Media explains why.

    NATIONALIST COLLABORATION TAKES SHAPE. Six parties met in Budapest on August 26th to sign a joint declaration confirming the friendship and political unity among the parties. The goal is to either form a new group in the European Parliament after the EU elections in June next year or to reconstitute the existing Identity and Democracy (ID) group with the new parties. Pictured from left to right: Mikael Jansson (Alternative for Sweden), Thierry Baudet (Forum for Democracy, Netherlands), László Toroczkai (Mi Hazánk, Hungary), Kostadin Kostadinov (Vazrazhdane, Bulgaria), and Josef Nerušil (Svoboda a přímá demokracie, Czech Republic). Also included is Mass-Voll from the non-EU country Switzerland (inset image). Photo: Free West Media

    European Nationalist Parties Forge Cooperation Ahead of EU Elections

    EUROPEAN ELECTIONSOn Saturday, August 26, representatives of six European nationalist parties gathered in Budapest. The meeting was initiated by the Hungarian party Mi Hazánk and took place in the national parliament. Representatives of the parties signed a joint declaration that not only reaffirms the parties' friendship but also their unity on a range of complex political issues. A surprisingly clear and radical manifesto was established. The hope is that this cooperation will lead to success in the EU elections and eventually result in the formation of a group in the European Parliament. For Swedish nationalism, this meeting marks a success as Sweden, for the first time, has a party represented in a leading nationalist cooperation in Europe. Free West Media was present at this historic event.

    Sweden's Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson participated in the Pride parade in Stockholm where Erdogan was ridiculed, something that Turkey took particularly badly. Photo: Nya Tider

    Turkey Believes Sweden Hasn’t Done Enough

    Sweden will have to wait a bit longer for NATO membership, according to Turkey's Justice Minister Jilmaz Tunc. First, Sweden must extradite the "terrorists" Turkey wants and stop the desecration of the Quran.

    Ka-52 crashes after being hit by a Swedish RBS 70. Russian sources report that one of the two pilots died in the crash. Image: Telegram

    Swedish Weapon Takes Down Russia’s Best Attack Helicopter

    The Russian attack helicopter Ka-52 is considered one of the world's best and has struck fear in Ukraine, where it has hunted down tanks and other armored vehicles, often beyond the range of many light anti-aircraft systems. However, it has met its match in the Swedish air defense missile system RBS 70, which has quickly led to significant losses for the Russian helicopter forces.

    Alternative for Germany held its conference during the last weekend of July in the thousand-year-old city of Magdeburg, located by the Elbe River in the eastern German state of Saxony. The first of the two conference days began with a strong program speech by the party's male spokesperson. Subsequently, party officials were elected and motions were addressed. The second day was entirely devoted to candidate selection and positioning for the EU election in June next year. Screenshot: AfD on Facebook

    Strong Confidence in German AfD

    Alternative for Germany (AfD) held a party conference on July 29-30 to select candidates for the upcoming EU election next year. EU Parliament member Maximilian Krah, belonging to the party's more radical, ethnonationalist faction, was appointed as the top candidate. The party's two spokespersons delivered powerful speeches criticizing the EU's failed migration policy and trade sanctions that isolate Europe and Germany from the rest of the world. They argued that it's time for the EU to return a significant portion of its power to national parliaments. However, they have dropped the demand for Germany to exit the EU.

    Maximilian Krah is one of the AfD politicians who is singled out as an ethnonationalist, as he has stated that there is a distinction between ethnic Germans and immigrants who have obtained German citizenship. Krah is a Member of the European Parliament and AfD's top candidate for the upcoming European Union election next year. Still image: AfD on Facebook

    The Establishment Wants to Ban Germany’s Second Largest Party – for the Sake of Democracy

    The rising popularity of AfD has raised strong concerns within the establishment. Despite lies and demonization in the media and isolation from the overall political establishment, the party continues to grow. Certain representatives of the party are accused of becoming increasingly "extreme," and in an unusual move, the influential weekly newspaper Der Spiegel demanded that AfD be "banned."

    FvD was quick to support the protests against covid restrictions. Today, the party also stands behind the farmers protests against the governments’ plans to close a big portion of the farms in the country for the sake of “climate”. The picture is from a protest against covid restrictions in Amsterdam in January of last year. Photo: Wion

    Dutch FvD break through the media blockade

    What is happening in the Netherlands? It is often difficult to follow events in other countries, especially when distorted by system media. We give Forum for Democracy (FvD) the opportunity to speak out on the political situation in the Netherlands and the staunch resistance they face in trying to save the country.

    Albert Bourla (l.) has close ties to Ursula von der Leyen (center). YouTube screenshot

    The Ursula von der Leyen Affair

    After a criminal complaint in Belgium against the President of the European Commission, the so-called SMS-case, now takes a new turn. The judge responsible for the investigation will likely gain access to the secret messages exchanged between Ursula von der Leyen and Albert Bourla, CEO of Pfizer, at least if they haven't been deleted.

    Daniel Friberg, founder of the publishing house Arktos, tells Nya Tider that they intend to counter censorship by starting new ventures, including an online cultural magazine and an online university. Photo: Arktos

    Publisher of Unique Literature Worldwide Blocked by International Distributor

    Arktos has distinguished itself by publishing groundbreaking philosophers and social critics. Now, the publisher's international distributor has abruptly terminated the cooperation, and more than 400 already printed titles cannot reach their audience. There is strong evidence that the distributor has been under pressure, something that has also happened in Sweden. We have spoken with Arktos founder Daniel Friberg about the ongoing struggle for freedom of speech in a shrinking cultural corridor.

    Cardinal Anders Arborelius, Bishop of Stockholm, is one of the Catholic bishops who signed the letter, which was read out in churches throughout Sweden, Finland, Denmark, and Iceland over the Easter weekend. Photo: The Catholic Church

    Care prompts bishops to criticize transgender ideology

    The Catholic bishops of the Scandinavian countries presented an open five-page letter criticizing transgender ideology on March 21, just before Easter. The document primarily expresses care and advice and was read aloud in Catholic churches in Sweden, Norway, Finland, Denmark, and Iceland. Cardinal Anders Arborelius, Bishop of Stockholm, is one of the signatories of the document.

    Go to archive