Rishi Sunak has called for all students to receive maths training until 18. In principle this is a laudable initiative, but how does the mathematics hold up?
Rishi has taken aim at the ‘anti-maths mindset’ and that being bad at maths can be considered socially acceptable. In a meeting with an audience of students, teachers and business leaders Rishi laid out a plan to ensure that all students received some form of maths tuition until they are 18. This is well received and a good idea. The details are to be considered, although it has been indicated that this won’t be compulsory A level maths.
Let us assume this will be about 2 hours a week for all the students not doing A level maths, compared with about 6 hours per week for maths students. The proportion of students doing A level mathematics is about 11%, which means there will be a need to provide some maths teaching for the other 89%. About an eight-fold increase in the numbers of students, but they will be taking up less time. If these extra classes are a third shorter, 2 hours instead of 6, this would mean there would need to be about a 2.5.fold increase in the numbers of maths teachers. This of course does not take into account the extra work on planning, administering and assessing these classes. This does assume that we were starting with a full complement of maths teachers. Unfortunately there is already a chronic shortage of maths teachers. A report showed that only 17% of the 2610 recruitment target was achieved in 2021-22.
The Liberal Democrat education spokeswoman Munira Wilson said the government lacked a “proper plan” to recruit more maths teachers, adding: “You don’t need a maths A-level to see that these plans don’t add up.”
Dr Mary Bousted, joint general secretary of the National Education Union, has said there’s a “crisis of teacher retention as a result of low pay and excessive workload” and called on the government to explain how it would recruit more maths teachers.
Some experts feel this proposal is aiming at the wrong target, and that investment in early years maths training builds a better foundation for mathematical ability.