Sunak’s maths jolly. Does it really add up?

Rishi Sunak has announced a review of maths education in England. He’s setting up a group of advisers, including mathematicians and business representatives to examine the “core maths content” taught in schools. The advisors will also consider whether a new maths qualification is necessary. He wants all school pupils in England to study some maths until 18 – although has said it will not be compulsory to study the subject at A-level. Opposition parties have attacked the government, Labour saying more maths teachers are needed to ‘drive up standards.’ The prime minister has agreed but admitted this is “not going to happen overnight”.

Though it’s the case that pass rates at GCSE are slightly lower than in other subjects, OFSTED reports higher attainment rates than in other countries, while maths is now the most popular A-level with 90,000 entries, partly the result of a government push towards STEM subjects.  It’s true that there has been a widening difference in attainment levels between ‘top’ and ‘bottom’, but is something happening across English education, raising wider issues about inequality.

Sunak has claimed an “anti-maths mindset” is holding the economy back.  But has a more technologically advanced economy increased the need for mathematical ability by workers?  Few would disagree that numeracy continues to be a core, even a necessary generic skill for most people.  But this also means the ability to interpret and analyse numerical data in a variety of situations.  Any ‘skills deficit’ in numeracy is not about a failure to be able to perform complicated calculations in a classroom, or worse still, an examination situation – where in any case, there are a whole range of applications and algorithms to allow you to do this quickly, even immediately.  In otherwords numeracy teaching should be part of a good general education for everybody. Of course, expert maths teachers will always be necessary in schools and colleges. But everything must be kept in perspective. And there are plenty of on-line resources to use.

But unfortunately, developments in AI and robotics will seriously disrupt the labour market, resulting in more and more people trying to ‘race against the machine’, but also concentrating power in the hands of small technological elites serving the real ‘masters of the universe’.  It may likely be the case that many of the jobs that do remain unaffected, will be low paid roles that by their nature will not be threatened with automation and have little need for numerical ability or proper skills at all.

There are dozens of other things Sunak and the Tories could be doing to rebuild economic confidence, restore investment levels, let alone make a serious attempt to reach climate targets. On the contrary, while Sunak is setting up his math’s committee the Bank of England may raise interest rates still further, increasing the likelihood of a recession, maybe a housing crash. Meanwhile Brexit, but more importantly, rejecting all serious trading arrangements with the EU has been an economic disaster, something Sunak is now starting to   realise?  

His maths jolly is a huge diversion.