A UK Parliamentary report paints a damning picture of the state of primary school leavers’ maths, as reported in The Guardian yesterday.
The report’s chair, Edward Leigh, said:
It is disgraceful that over one fifth of all primary school children reach the end of their primary education without a secure grasp of basic mathematical skills.
This can have serious long-term consequences: for many then continue through secondary school without acquiring basic numeracy skills, impairing their chances in life and leaving them later in need of expensive remedial education.
It would seem that more primary school students need the preventive attentions of somewhat cheaper education services if the Commons Public Accounts Committee (PAC) report’s findings hold true. Edward Leigh points to the fact that early maths teaching is where it all begins, recognising what I think are the basic truths about maths teaching:
- Maths is progressive – complex maths is built on the simple
- Early experiences of maths help to define lifelong confidence in the subject.
The report notes that maths is the one area in which primary age boys are outperforming girls, and that the performance gap is widening. There are various theories about the reason for girls’ underperformance in maths and science, but it’s arguable that this discrepancy is a symptom of the wider problem that the PAC report points to – namely, that too many students think “maths is boring”.
You could argue this is a little obvious – a weak student by default will be turned off by his or her least favourite subject – but that this complaint is so often heard, despite the huge amounts spent on boosting maths teaching in primary schools over recent years, is cause for concern. Early gains in student maths performance have apparently levelled off, leaving the government’s targets (that students at age 11 reach Level 4) a less attainable.
In defence of the government’s ahicevements (or lack thereof) Schools Minister Sarah McCarthy-Fry pointed out that last year 100,000 more students achieveved level 4 at age 11 than did so in 1997.