Social media setback for for PM's pro-maths campaign
Social media drive for Rishi Sunak’s pro-maths campaign ‘is shelved after only finding one case study’ – and it turned out they OPPOSED making people study the subject to age 18
- No10 had hoped to put out Top Trumps-style cards with jobs that need maths
A social media drive for Rishi Sunak’s pro-maths campaign was shelved after apparently only finding one case study – and it turned out they opposed the policy.
The PM gave a keynote speech yesterday reiterating his determination to make people study the subject to the age of 18. He railed at a cultural sense that it is ‘OK to be bad at maths’, saying it was limiting ambitions and holding back the economy.
The government had hoped to create shareable images with ‘cool jobs’ people might not have realised required numeracy skills.
But it seems No10 only managed to recruit Stephen Follows, a successful film data analyst and producer, for the push.
And he told The Times that he only accepted the overture because he wanted to speak against the idea.
Rishi Sunak gave a keynote speech yesterday reiterating his determination to make people study the subject to the age of 18
Mr Sunak railed at a cultural sense that it is ‘OK to be bad at maths’, saying it was limiting ambitions and holding back the economy
‘Nobody thought to ask me whether I support this policy,’ he said.
While maths is vital to Mr Follows’ job, he is largely self-taught and was drawn to statistics because of his passion for film.
‘Forcing students to study maths until the age of 18 risks stifling the passions and interests of individual students, the very qualities that education should be cultivating,’ he said.
Officials had hoped to create a series of Top Trumps-style images with the catchline: ‘Cool jobs you didn’t know you needed maths for.’
Mr Follows said he thought the lack of case studies was because aides left it too late, only approaching him on Friday.
Mr Sunak insisted yesterday that maths is ‘as essential as reading’ and failure to drive up standards is harming the economy.
Speaking at an academy in London, Mr Sunak said even ‘basic numeracy skills’ can increase earnings by around £1,600 a year.
He suggested that pupils could be encouraged to calculate the angle of free kicks in football matches, or the speed of Formula 1 cars to ‘bring maths to life’.
The government announced an advisory group to look into a potential new maths qualification for those aged 16 to 18.
Mr Sunak stressed that his plans would not mean everyone doing A-Level, saying it would be ‘something different’. And he admitted it will not happen until after the next election.
Critics accused the premier of reheating previous promises and trying to distract from the ongoing strike action in schools. Opponents complained there are not enough maths teachers to implement the idea.
More than 8million British adults have numeracy skills below those expected of a nine-year-old (file image)
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