Review of Carol Vorderman's comments re Maths

Radio 4

Carol Vorderman interview with John Humphries

http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_9558000/9558798.stm

75% of those with a grade C GCSE in maths can’t do simple percentages, ratios and areas.

No point in force fed trigonometry and algebra after age 14 when young people can’t even calculate a percentage. Need two GCSE in Maths – one practical (including financial maths) and one for those who will continue to A level and beyond.

Guardian

http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2011/aug/08/maths-taskforce-gcse-split

Focus of this story is very much on splitting GCSE into two areas. Also criticises early entry maths where achieving grade C at GCSE is seen as “all that’s needed”

BBC News

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-14437665

Radical change is necessary – can’t be right that only 15% of pupiols study maths post 16 when in other inditrialised natins, it’s nearer 100% Ms Vorderman said more than 300,000 16-year-olds each year completed their education without enough understanding of maths to function properly in their work or private lives.

Another focus on how GCSE should be split but no mention of functionality of financial focus.

Daily Telegraph

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationnews/8687244/Study-maths-up-to-18-says-Carol-Vorderman-report.html

Focus here is on greater macro-econimc position that failure in maths hurts the country.

“Unless major alterations in our mathematics education are made, and quickly, we are risking our future economic prosperity.”

CBI

http://www.cbi.org.uk/ndbs/press.nsf/0363c1f07c6ca12a8025671c00381cc7/90fe4145e8126880802578e6003299aa?OpenDocument

Short statement, but quite pointed so in full it says.
“Maths is a subject of critical importance, and this report rightly highlights that there needs to be more focus on teaching ‘useful maths’ that is relevant for future employment and day-to-day life. Businesses are most concerned about basic levels of numeracy and it’s alarming that more than one in five 16-19 year olds are considered functionally innumerate. To help address this problem, all young people should continue to study some form of maths until the age of 18. Pupils with good maths ability should continue to study the full curriculum, but all pupils, regardless of ability, should go on to study a functional numeracy qualification.”

The report also agrees and also states “Employers say that even those who pass GCSE are not functional in mathematics, meaning that they cannot apply what they have learnt in the workplace”

The Report focuses on suggesting changes to the way Maths is taught

http://www.conservatives.com/News/News_stories/2011/08/Vorderman_publishes_report_on_maths_education.aspx

Commissioned by the Tories when in opposition, but clearly supported by Michael Gove who last month introduced the idea of maths being taught to at least age 18 in this speech. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-13958422

Key parts of the report include:

We are advising a radical change in mathematics education from the age of 14 to 18 with two critical recommendations. The first involves fundamental changes to GCSE. The second is that there should be some form of compulsory mathematics education for all students to the age of 18. Both of these recommendations must be considered together, and not individually, as the first has a direct effect on the second. The impact of the changes in GCSE, particularly for the half of each cohort which currently “fail”

GCSE, will then be enhanced by a continuation of mathematics for a further two years from age 16 to 18.

The syllabuses must be allowed to reward students who are able to achieve a higher standard in a smaller area of the curriculum, rather than a low standard across a much wider curriculum (however this is eventually structured). Regulation currently prevents this from happening even though nearly half of our young people fail GCSE: by the age of 14 many of these have been turned off mathematics and, when they finish studying mathematics two years later, are still functionally innumerate.

This often leaves pupils and students able to answer examination questions but without the functionality that they will need if they are to put the subject to use in employment or in other areas of study. At school policy level, some secondary schools are now choosing to concentrate their resources on students at those thresholds that are critical for the targets against which performance will be reported, for example grade C at GCSE. This is at the expense of the attention given to able students, those likely to go on to A level, and to those at the other end of the spectrum who are seen as certain to fail. Another policy that is being driven by performance tables is the increasing tendency to enter students for GCSE before they are ready.