Today is National Numeracy
Day a great opportunity to highlight the value of
numeracy and encourage people to take action to improve
their skills. From cooking, to working out your weekly shop or
organising your mortgage or rent payments, numbers are hugely
important in everyday life.
It is never too late to improve your numeracy skills, especially
when being better with numbers can change your life. To help
this, the Government has introduced several new changes which
includes reforming the maths GCSE, Functional Skills
Qualifications, and has set up a network of new maths hubs across
the country.
These changes have helped make sure more people are leaving
education with a good grasp of maths. In 2018, more than 75% of
19 year olds held a GCSE or equivalent qualification in maths.
Maths is also now the most popular A Level chosen by students in
England. Since 2010, entries have risen by quarter (up 25.4% to
87,531 in 2018).
To find out whether your numeracy skills are up to scratch, get
involved by taking the National Numeracy Day
challenge here:
Here are just some of the things the Government is doing to help
boost the nation’s maths skills:
There are lots of opportunities to improve your maths skills
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We know students who leave education with a strong grasp of
English and maths increase their chances of getting a job, a
career or going on to higher levels of education.
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If you’re over 16 and left school without gaining a GCSE
grade 4 in maths, then you’ll continue to study maths as part
of your 16-18 education or training. As a result of this,
tens of thousands of young people aged 17 and over in England
are successful in their GCSEs or equivalent qualifications.
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If you are aged 19 or over and haven’t achieved a GCSE grade
C/4 or higher in maths already, but want to improve your
maths, the Government fully funds a range of maths courses up
to Level 2 (GCSE or equivalent).
Our network of specialist maths hubs are supporting schools to
deliver improved and innovative teaching methods across the county.
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In 2014, we launched the maths hubs programme – a national
network of 35 hubs across England to support to teachers and
schools to improve the quality of maths education from the
Early Years through to age 18. All the support is available
free of charge to maths teachers in any state funded schools
and colleges in England.
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Maths hubs also deliver the Teaching for Mastery programme,
which adapts maths education from top-performing East Asian
schools for teaching in English schools. The programme which
is backed by £76 million aims to reach 11,000 primary and
secondary schools by 2023.
New Centres of Excellence in Maths established around the country
to boost maths post-16
- 21 Centres for Excellence in Maths have been launched and
will work with networks of Further Education providers across the
length and breadth of England. The Centres are designed to
improve understanding of what works in teaching and support best
practice to improve maths for students over the age of 16 who
previously had low attainment grades.
More support for Further Education providers to help boost maths
outcomes for their students
- Finally, we’ve launched the Basic Maths Premium
Pilot. It offers up to £500 per eligible student aged 16 and
over to Further Education providers to improve the outcomes of
low attaining students.
To find out whether your numeracy skills are up to scratch, get
involved by taking the National Numeracy Day
challenge here
