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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.
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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."