Universities are having to provide remedial maths lessons to science students who gave up the subject at school but later find that they cannot complete their degree without it, an eminent scientist has cautioned.

Richard Pike, chief executive of the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC), gave warning that Britain’s position as a world leader in science was being undermined by China and other countries because of its poor performance in maths.

In an attack on the British education system today, Dr Pike calls for maths to be compulsory in school to the age of 18 and says that school league tables should be scrapped.

He has issued a challenge on the RSC’s website (www.rsc. org) to members of the British public to complete a sample question from the Chinese university entrance exam. Correct answers will be entered in a draw for a £500 prize.

Mathematics is the language of science. Yet Dr Pike claims that teachers increasingly want 16-year-olds to drop maths and take easier A-levels purely to boost their school’s place in league tables.

“The consequence of this is that most universities run remedial mathematics courses for new chemistry students, as many have not opened a text book on the subject for over two years,” he said.

Marcus du Sautoy, Professor of Maths at the University of Oxford, agreed that there was a “desperate need” to increase the mathematical literacy of science undergraduates in Britain. “The economic future of the country depends on having a mathematically literate population. China recognises this,” he said.

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