Kids don't need to learn maths anymore because of AI

[noblegiraffe]

Claims this tit in the Guardian

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/mar/20/gcses-young-people-ministers-report-exams-britain-schools

"Just as the chip renders obsolete a need to know how engines work, so computers and soon artificial intelligence have rendered maths obsolete. In both cases, the subject is the pursuit of a tiny minority. It is computers that all pupils should study and learn how to use, rather than be suspended or accused of cheating for doing so. Making them learn maths is like teaching them to swim but banning the use of water."

He then suggests that personal finance should be prioritised as a subject to teach in schools. Good luck teaching that to kids who don't know any maths.

Incidentally, I asked ChatGPT to do some maths questions and it got them wrong. Ask me how I knew.

Well I'm absolutely excellent at personal finance and I invest.
I don't have my maths gcse and don't need it.
I think the maths content is ridiculous for most students who have no intention of doing sciences or stuff like that.

How do you decide which students are going to need maths because they want to do sciences? Why would you shut that door on them before you need to?

Chat GPT is appalling at getting facts and figures right. It has no real world knowledge so no idea whether its answers are in the right ballpark.

Plus it's awful for the environment.

I think by a certain stage it's obvious which children are good at maths and sciences.
Making them do it in the major stuff fine actually proper stuff major operations. But for goodness sake we can all live very well without knowing the volume of a random triangle or even ratio stuff.
It's hideous that so many young people see themselves as thick and stupid because they can't do a leaf diagram or work out irregular fractions which they will never ever need in their entire lives.
But they don't know how to invest and grow money. They don't know how to save.

If we're not careful we're going to sleepwalk into a situation where the majority are uneducated, incredibly easy to be taken advantage of and few will have any idea what is real or accurate.

And most people seem to be happy with this as long as ChatGPT does all their thinking for them.

If we think the world's billionaires have too much money and power now at the expense of the ordinary person, we haven't seen anything yet. Terrifying.

This is ridiculous.

Maths is not just numbers. It teaches logic, it’s the basis of independent thinking and problem solving.

It’s crucial for the development of the young mind.

Man sits at home on a laptop, using a word processing programme, sends it WiFi to his editor explaining how kids “don’t need maths”

Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha

yeah being able to debate and use creative digital skills are what we all need the future generation to do, so what they can explain fully why their photographs of “shoes on trains” have social importance!

GCSEs aren’t that hard.

we can all live very well without knowing the volume of a random triangle

Oh the pain! 😭

But people will still need to know enough maths to know when the computer gets it wrong…

We’ve all had calculators for years. Still helpful to know that 11298 + 5393 is around 17000, not 1700, just in case the numbers have been mistyped.

Funnily enough computer science degrees tend to care more about what grade you got in maths A-level than computer science A-level. The type of logical thinking that maths trains you in is really important for computer science.

But sometimes being able to work out random stuff is just fun

Not just look stuff up but work it out

Maybe we start education too young. How on earth can children decide what they want to do with their lives at the age of 13 when they start to choose their options. My four have all regretted their choice of options but they weren’t allowed to change them. My eldest dd chose GCSE art, thinking that she wanted to do something vaguely arty. She hated it even though she got an A star. She chose something completely different in sixth form and went to uni off the back of that.
complete waste of a GCSE.
But I would say that Maths is important, even the stuff that you think you don’t need. She really struggled with Maths at uni, turns out she needed algebra, statistics etc as she did a science based degree.

id say less GCSEs, less options and focus more on science, English and Maths and maybe one option based subject. Then decide in year 11 what you want to do in college etc.

I appreciate there are probably flaws in this 😂

Who wants less education?

exams are just a moment to show off
“hey I know all this random shit”

You're still not going to be able to work out the volume of a triangle.

I reckon I could give it a good go!

(i did maths and art at a level sone of it stuck i reckon). Maths was fun, art was fun

Going to a building with the only "job" was yo learn new stuff isn't a bad place to be even if that "new stuff" is ephemeral

I notice that he wants kids to be taught debating, but that's something you could argue isn't needed anymore either due to AI.

There are certainly posters on MN who get ChatGPT to do their debating for them.

It could have probably done a better job of Mr Jenkins' article for him too.

Triangles don't have volume, they are 2D shapes. Volume is a measure of 3D space.

Surely a better educated society is a good thing? I can’t see this taking off.

Future #1

That is true
It's friday evening I have a glass of red
Pyramids or cones

I would still enjoy failing

You're suggesting that Art was a complete waste of a GCSE because she didn't use it in future study - but surely learning about art and doing art is a valuable activity in and of itself?

We should all just give up now really …. Joking! This reminds me of a thread the other day where someone was saying about how bored they must have been years ago with no entertainment- she meant the generation that had a wealth of knowledge, skills and the ability to communicate in person (generation before mine😉)

Probably because it's two dimensional.

I read some quote about teaching children 'useless' maths like algebra. It was something comparing maths to the gym or sport. Like if you are a rugby player, lifting weights in the gym, you don't need to know how to lift weights and you won't need to do it in your everyday life/day job, but it will help you do what you need to do.

I'm sure it was snappier than I have just worded it 😂.