Experts are worried the growing number of students turning their backs on maths and science will be ill-prepared for the technology-driven jobs of the future.

The Australian Council for Education Research says maths achievement and engagement has been declining for more than a decade and Australia is being leapfrogged by other nations.

In Australia, the participation rate in advanced maths has decreased from 14.2 per cent of Year 12 students in 1995 to 10 per cent in 2014.

Dr Rachel Wilson, a senior education lecturer at the University of Sydney, told the ABC recently the trend was worrying.

"We're already seeing the impact of the disappearance of current employment fields and the way to protect yourself against those shifts is to be developing skills in maths and science," she said.

Dr Wilson is concerned years of publicising the importance of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) in the future economy has done little to boost interest in mathematics.

"We're seeing quite substantial numbers of students now completing secondary school without any maths," she said.

"The level of maths that students are choosing to study also dropping."

Girls outnumbered 2:1

Girls studying maths subjects are outnumbered by boys 2:1 – a ratio that has remained unchanged since 1991.

At Loyola Senior High School in Sydney's west, 27-year-old robotics and aeronautical space engineer Dr Mahya Mirzaei is hoping to inspire girls to take up the subject.

Dr Mirzaei believes the problem starts outside the classroom.

"To a large extent us as a society determine the goals and dreams of our children. So if you look around us, what message are we giving our girls?" she told the ABC.

"Most of our daughters are going to follow what society tells them they're capable of and at the moment we're not really telling our girls they can be leaders."

Dr Mirzaei gave a pep-talk to HSC students at the school in Mt Druitt, only four of whom are taking Maths Extension 2 this year.

"Every ground-breaking innovation that we've had has been on the basis of mathematics," she told the room.

Source: ABC News