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2012-03-02 08:03:50
By Judith Burns Education reporter, BBC News
Poor numeracy is blighting Britain's economic performance and ruining lives,
says a new charity launched to champion better maths skills.
The group, National Numeracy, says millions of people struggle to understand a
payslip or a train timetable, or pay a household bill.
Government figures show almost half the working population of England have only
primary school maths skills.
A government spokeswoman said poor numeracy was a national scandal.
The new organisation quotes from research suggesting weak maths skills are
linked with an array of poor life outcomes such as prison, unemployment,
exclusion from school, poverty and long-term illness.
'British disease'
It also wants to challenge a mindset which views poor numeracy as a "badge of
honour", promising to name and shame public figures who boast of being bad at
maths.
A YouGov poll for the charity suggests that while four out of five people would
be embarrassed to confess to poor literacy skills, just over half would feel
the same about admitting to poor maths skills.
Chris Humphries, chairman of National Numeracy and a former chief executive of
the UK Commission for Employment and Skills, said: "It is simply inexcusable
for anyone to say 'I can't do maths'. It is a peculiarly British disease which
we aim to eradicate.
"It doesn't happen in other parts of the world. With encouragement and good
teaching, everyone can improve their numeracy."
Mr Humphries said just 15% of Britons study maths after the age of 16, compared
to between 50 and 100% in most developed nations.
He pointed to research by KPMG auditors suggesting annual costs to the public
purse arising from failure to master basic numeracy skills amount to 2.4bn.
"We are paying for this in our science, technology and engineering industries
but also in people's own ability to earn funds and manage their lives," he told
BBC Radio 4's Today programme.
Many people could not get jobs because they struggled to read graphs and
interpret documents, while plumbers unable to do the calculations required to
install an energy efficient boiler might lose income, he suggested.
Continue reading the main story
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BT chairman Sir Mike Rake, a supporter of the new organisation, said: "Poor
numeracy is the hidden problem that blights the UK economy and ruins
individuals' chances in life."
The organisers say National Numeracy is the first organisation set up solely to
champion the vital importance of numeracy for people of all ages.
The plan is to emulate the success of the National Literacy Trust, which has
helped improve reading and writing standards since it was set up nearly 20
years ago.
Maths declining
Last year's Skills for Life survey showed that the drive to improve literacy
was working, with almost six out of 10 people in England having strong reading
and writing skills.
But the same figures also showed that high level maths skills in England were
declining.
Only 22% of people have strong enough maths skills to get a good GCSE in the
subject - down from 26% when the survey was last carried out in 2003.
Paula Rodrigues told Today she struggled with maths at school, with little
instruction from teachers, was left to mark her own work and so "just used to
cheat". She eventually passed her GCSE aged 30, prompted by her own children
who were struggling with the subject.
"In a shop, I couldn't quickly work out whether I'd been short-changed... or
add up my shopping if I didn't have a lot of money with me," she remembered.
Attracting graduates
Conservative MP Graham Stuart, who chairs the education select committee, said
maths must be seen as an urgent national priority.
"It's about quality of teaching. If you scraped a 'C' in GCSE and then stopped
studying any form of maths for years before you got to teacher training
college, are you really in a good position to be able to inspire - and
communicate basic maths skills - in primary school?
"I don't think you are."
A spokeswoman for the Department for Education said: "We want the vast majority
of young people to study maths up to 18 within a decade to meet the growing
demand for employees with high level and intermediate maths skills.
"We are undertaking a root-and-branch review of how maths is taught in schools,
attracting the best maths graduates into the profession."
Rachel Riley, presenter of TV's Countdown said: "If children are engaged with
maths from an early age and enjoy the subject they are far more likely to be
successful in it.
"We need to find imaginative ways to switch them on to maths and teach them to
be proud to be numerate."