Italy has gone through a time of big and deep reforms in education. Mathematics has never been particularly loved by students, and it is one of the subjects at the core of the Italian debate on learning (together with others like Latin).
Maths is generally considered a “difficult subject” and most  people think they won’t need it in their future, so they don’t understand why they have to make so many efforts and study it.

Almost every day you can hear students complaining about their poor marks in Maths and how they find it difficult to understand it, even they who attend a Liceo Scientifico. Therefore one should wonder if studying Maths compulsorily is worth all those efforts.

Spontaneously, it seems to me that nowadays the school system works quite well, as regards Maths.

First of all, I think learning the basics of Mathematics is fundamental for everyone.
Maths is indeed the second language we come across in our lives, shortly after our mother tongue. Maths, figures and data are probably to more wide-spread communication means all over the world, the one that can be understood by all people, no matter where they live. Not being able to understand it, would cut us out of  an important share of the world.

Another point in favour of learning Maths at compulsory school is that, if one doesn’t know a subject, he can’t know if he likes it. The objective of compulsory schools is to give people basic  education in main fields and allow them to discover and decide which one they want to specialize in. Maths is one of those main fields.

No doubt, many people may find it difficult to understand it. Processing abstract concepts, like numbers, has indeed been discovered to be the biggest challenge we have to face during our early years of life. And going on with new topics, Maths becomes more and more abstract... and this is why most people find it so difficult to understand.

However, it represents one of the most important conquests in human history, and quite everything is based on Maths or its derivates. You need maths to build a house, a TV or a computer, maths to make any machine work, maths not to spend more than you make or to combine the right amount of substances to have your hair dyed. Some of the previous examples only require basic knowledge (the one you build up during elementary and middle school). Many others need more specific knowledge, a deeper and sectional interest.

I think students should be taught Maths at least at elementary and middle school, just like English, Italian or History. Once out of compulsory school, students themselves are free to choose the school that better develops their interests.
If one is not interested in Maths at all, he should then choose a school based on something else. Anyway, that basic Maths learned in the previous years will be part of his cultural background forever.

If this is how it works, why do students of a Liceo Scientifico complain about Maths anyway? Either because they were not really interested in that subject or because they do no put enough effort in it. Anyway, the choice was in their hands.
As long as people will go on trying to make the best with the minimum effort or making their choices lightly, it will go on this way.

If somebody “makes a wrong choice” and fails, it doesn’t mean that path is wrong for everybody.
If people go on making wrong choices, it means that they were not mature enough to choose better.
If we had to cut hours or remove subjects every time people say they are difficult, in the end, we wouldn’t have a school system anymore.