13th May 2015 1:00
By Blue Tutors
Labour have announced plans to ensure that all pupils in England continue to study maths until they are 18. Shadow education secretary Tristram Hunt said that school children would continue to study Maths throughout sixth form, and noted that currently 250,000 students pass GCSE maths with a C grade or higher but do not go on to study the subject at A level. Hunt pointed out that only those who failed GCSE Maths had to continue studying past the age of 16 in order to resit the exams. Labour’s plans have been widely endorsed by leading academics and policy makers, who said that improving numeracy skills was a crucial part of reducing unemployment in England.
The proposals have been welcomed after a recent OECD report found that a quarter of adults in England have the maths skills of a 10 year old, and are unable to complete a maths task more complicated than number sorting or graph reading. Labour have said that the current education system is not meeting the demands of employers, who are appalled to find that many young people do not have basic Maths skills. Discussing the Maths policy with Oxford mathematician and television presenter Marcus du Sautoy, Tristram Hunt said that pushing the age of maths study to 18 would start a new generation of students who had the skills to succeed in life. Du Sautoy said that in a new scientific age, it was essential that young people should be mathematically literate.
Currently only 20% of school students in England go on to study Maths past the age of 16, a figure which compares poorly with other countries such as Germany and Hong Kong where 90% of students continue with Maths after the age of 16. The charity ‘National Numeracy’ has also supported the plans, highlighting the detrimental views that undermine students’ confidence in maths. A spokesperson for the charity said that it is time to quash the prevailing view that maths is either something people can do or they can’t. Whilst there is broad support for the policy in principle, concerns have also been raised as to how the policy will be fulfilled in practice given that there is already a shortage of maths teachers in the UK.