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.
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.