Recommendation 45

HM Government · verbatim extract Accepted

The Prime Minister has set out that our future economic growth depends on combating poor numeracy and maximising the potential of all young people. Poor numeracy costs our economy tens of billions a year, and the UK is one of the least numerate countries in the developed world, with around a third of young people not passing maths GCSE. The Prime Minister has therefore set a new mission for all young people to study maths to age 18, equipping them with the skills they need for the modern economy. Our driving principle is to ensure all young people are equipped with the right maths knowledge and skills to thrive, whatever their chosen pathway. The Government has already convened an expert advisory group, including teachers, academics, and business representatives, to advise on what the right maths content should look like and how this should be reflected in a post-16 education system where all young people study maths to age 18. We recognise that rolling out maths to a substantially larger post-16 cohort will require a larger workforce of trained teachers. We will work closely with schools and colleges to address this, launching a new, fully funded mathematics National Professional Qualification (NPQ) for primary schools and expanding the Taking Teaching Further programme for FE teachers. We also provide significant incentives for maths teacher recruitment and retention, including bursaries and a Levelling Up Premium. To improve foundational numeracy, we have transformed maths teaching in schools, introducing mastery pedagogy and the Maths Hubs programme. The expert advisory group's scope includes considering practical numeracy and financial skills, and we will commission research on post-16 maths provision globally to inform our curriculum.