Carol Vorderman, the government’s new weapon against poor arithmetic, has said children should be made to study maths until they leave school at 18.
The Government asked the TV presenter to review maths teaching standards in England, and her findings – published today – call for ‘major alterations’ to how the subject is taught.
Carol says 22 per cent of pupils aged 16-19 are ‘functionally innumerate’, with no basic grasp of maths and arithmetic, and that it is ‘unacceptable’ that just 15 per cent of pupils take maths after their GCSEs at 16.
She says that when the full-time education age raises to 18 by 2015, all pupils should have compulsory maths lesson until they leave school.
She writes: ‘Employers complain at the low level of new employees’ mathematical competence and now many hold numeracy courses,’ claiming that the ‘failed system’ that lets students give up all maths at 16 ‘is against common practice in most industrialised nations and there is an urgent need for change’.
She also claims that children should be taught personal finance to stop them falling into debt when they are older, stating: ‘Without major alterations in maths education quickly, we risk our future prosperity.’
Carol insists her plans will not make maths harder or lessons more gruelling, but will instead make the teaching ‘better’ and the ‘subject matter more suitable.’
Education Secretary Michael Gove said Carol’s report ‘will help.’
At the Financial Fairy Tales we applaud the support for personal finance to be taught in schools, but compulsory maths – just doesn’t add up.
How many times as an adult have you used calculus or trigonometry? Those are topics in the pre-16 GCSE curriculum, so goodness knows what theoretical content would be taught post 16. Of course higher studies of Maths are essential for some careers such as engineers or computer programmers, but making it compulsory for all is a mistake.
Better to make the teaching and learning of maths more relevant and more fun. That way both results and take up rates will improve.
