Last week the Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, announced plans for all pupils in England to study maths up to the age of 18.
Commenting on the plan to expand maths education, Peter Shreeve, Assistant District Secretary of the National Education Union, told News OnTheWight,
“The Prime Minister’s statement is baffling. A statement without a coherent plan. It fails to show any understanding of the present reality on two counts:
“Firstly, schools and colleges lack teacher numbers to deliver. Government policies for teacher recruitment are not producing and keeping new teachers in sufficient numbers. Indeed, Government has missed their own recruitment target in every one of the last twelve years.
“Rishi Sunak needs to solve the basic issues of more than a decade of decreasing real pay and workload pressures, which create these perpetual ongoing issues of teacher recruitment and retention first. His aspirational plan is unrealistic without these improvements.”
He went on to say,
“Secondly, in addition, it takes no account of the increasingly detailed, widespread and arguably urgent discussions about curriculum reform that have been taking place across the education sector and even within his own party for some time.”
Shreeve: Needs to be based on solid research evidence
Mr Shreeve added that any plan to implement proposals such as these required solid research evidence,
“There is certainly a place for maths education in proposals like these, but it needs to be based on solid research evidence, backed up by adequate numbers of qualified staff, skilled in the delivery of maths at whatever level is demanded.
“This includes appropriate maths skills, wherever they appear in other subjects and contexts. Young people must be supported, in order to progress in their chosen future roles, be it in work or further academic study.”
Image: Sumudu Mohottige under CC BY 2.0
