26th July 2012 12:11
By Blue Tutors
England Lagging Behind in Higher Level Maths
England has ranked 26th out of 34 OECD countries for the proportion of pupils reaching the top level in maths, behind other nations like Slovenia (3.9%), the Slovak Republic (3.6%) France (3.3%) and the Czech Republic (3.2%), which were among those scoring around the OECD average.
The Sutton Trust study shows teenagers in England are half as likely as those in the average developed nation to reach higher levels in maths.
Researchers at the Centre for Education and Employment Research at Buckingham University examined the proportions of pupils achieving the highest levels in Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) tests.
The PISA tests (Programme for International Student Assessment) compare the performance of pupils in different countries in subjects such as reading and maths. The latest results date back to 2009.
The report found that just 1.7% of England's 15-year-olds reached the highest level, Level 6, in maths, compared with an OECD average of 3.1%.
In Switzerland and Korea, 7.8% of pupils reached this level.
The report adds that the situation looks worse for England when a wider global comparison is used.
Singapore, which is not part of the OECD table analysed, saw 15.6% of its students score the top level, while in Hong Kong and Shanghai, which were also not part of the OECD table, 10.8% and 26.6% respectively got the top level.
Sutton Trust chairman Sir Peter Lampl said: "This is a deeply troubling picture for any us who care about our brightest pupils from non-privileged backgrounds."
Michael Gove, then, it seems has a point. We should be teaching Maths up to 18, we should be making sure England doesn’t lag behind on a global scale. While GCSEs may have helped the poorer performing students we need an education system that challenges those more talented students too.