Mathematics as a compulsory subject for admission: why journalists and designers cannot do without it
31 October 22:08
Math is not about formulas, but about the ability to think logically and analyze data. That is why this subject should remain compulsory for admission to higher education institutions. This was stated by Tetiana Vakulenko, Director of the Ukrainian Center for Educational Quality Assessment, in an interview with the "Komersant Ukrainian" YouTube channel.
“Math is not so much about specific formulas. Math is a tool, just like language. It is a tool that absolutely all professionals need,” she emphasized.
According to Vakulenko, everyone needs basic math skills – both designers and journalists. She explained that modern journalism, for example, is impossible without analyzing data, graphs and tables, because this is what helps to distinguish facts from manipulations.
“As soon as we lose this ability to work with such data, we will immediately get publications that confuse percentages with quantities. This is just one example,” she noted.
In addition, Vakulenko reminded that the passing score in math at the NMT is minimal – only 5 correct answers out of 32, which corresponds to the level of seventh grade tasks in the school curriculum. Therefore, in her opinion, anyone who plans to study at a higher education institution, regardless of their specialty, can overcome this threshold.
