- Maths matters on an individual and national level
- Could a new maths curriculum boost the economy?
You may not have Wednesday 17 May circled on your calendar, but this year maths is big news, and that makes National Numeracy Day more significant than ever.
A few weeks ago Rishi Sunak set out his “vision to ensure every young person has the maths skills they need to succeed”. Sunak took aim at a “cultural sense that it’s ok to be bad at maths”, and said that “we simply cannot allow poor numeracy to cost our economy tens of billions a year or to leave people twice as likely to be unemployed as those with competent numeracy”.
Evidence suggests that at a macro level, maths matters. An April report from National Numeracy found that low maths attainment could be costing the UK economy up to £25bn a year through negative impacts on career choice and progression. The charity added that improved numeracy skills are necessary for “a resilient and adaptable workforce” in the face of a changing economy.
Bad maths bites at an individual level, too. The charity estimates that only 49 per cent of the UK’s working-age population have the expected numeracy levels of a primary school leaver, and that around 40 per cent are not fully confident with everyday money management. This matters hugely when “poor numeracy limits learning opportunities and career choices, throwing up a significant, lifelong barrier to social mobility”.
There is also a significant gender imbalance: when the charity asked participants to rate their confidence with numbers on a scale of 1 to 10, the average score for women was 6.5, compared with 8.2 for men. In the forward of the report, Lucy-Marie Hagues, UK head of credit card company Capital One, said that “women aren’t achieving the financial and career outcomes they deserve” as a result.
The prime minister hopes to ensure that all young people study some form of mathematics until the age of 18 – but this doesn’t mean that every student will be forced to limp through A-Level maths. An expert group has been set up to advise the government on the ‘core’ maths content that students need, and whether a new qualification for 16-18-year-olds is even required.
If current ‘core’ qualifications are anything to go by, the new 16-18 curriculum will cover the more practical side of things: probabilities, cost-benefit analysis, graphical methods and exponential functions. There will probably be a significant ‘maths for personal finance’ component, too. The government’s plans remain a work in progress and are yet to confront the tricky reality of teacher recruitment. Nevertheless, the rationale looks sound.
Whether talk of functions leaves you nostalgic for maths lessons or suppressing a shudder of dread, an IC-friendly core maths question is included below. After all, what better way to celebrate National Numeracy Day? Calculators (but not computers) are allowed.
