To think that Carol Vorderman should have learned her lesson from her cringe-making Questiontime appearance?

[LineRunner]

Just a thought. She popped up again on the news promoting compulsory maths lessons for 16-18 year olds.

And she was rather cat's-arse-faced about maths teachers.

I don't think she's really qualified to comment on maths teaching, or anything else for that matter. She's hardly a top mathematician, - more a woman who used to do arithmetic on game show. She's not a teacher either as far as I know. Anyway she's a raving tory.

well she does have a Cambridge maths degree, and while she only got a third, this was before the grade deflation so probably worth a whole lot more than about 95% of the population

so yes, even though she's a celeb she's quite well qualified to speak

She was the chair of a panel whose report was issued today. She didn't just come up with it herself at random.

Here's the thread in which the actual proposals are being discussed.

She's more qualified than George osborne, but only just.

I liked her on Countdown, don't get me wrong, even though she often had to have help with the numbers (they don't air that bit, obviously). My daughter and I called her 'Clever Lady' (DD was little, I hasten to add).

well the problem with "expertise in pedagogy" is clearly that current teaching is not working

we even have some teachers teaching who do not have a basic grasp of maths and english

we have a focus on IEPs and making learning fun with class groups growing and growing in size and more demands on teacher time in paperwork and allowing all the children to access the curriculum no matter what the SEN but without the support required

we have an educational system that has been destroyed by educational policy after educational policy over decades and examinations that have been devalued

we have a govt. policy to send 50% of students to university - what's the flaming point

and a university system that has been degraded and concomitantly become out of the financial reach of many

I thought she studied Engineering, not Maths. Although obviously Engineering involves huge amounts of Maths anyway. Not a fan of celebs heading up task forces really, feels very gimmicky.

I don't really get her appeal. She did some counting on a gameshow once and wears tight dresses.

I read an interview once where she says she got a Third in Engineering and then her mum rang up and got her the audition for Countdown because she [CV] didn't know what she was going to do.

Once again a celebrity is brought in to give an "expert" opinion about something of which they don't have any professional experience, in this case teaching.

There are thousands of maths and/or education teachers/lecturers/professors out there. Why not ask them instead? Oh, because we've never heard of them before!

She wasn't giving her opinion: she was reporting the findings of a committee she chaired, which comprised teachers, academics, business people, etc. Unsurprisingly, the media ask her to speak as she's more TV-friendly than Professor Beardy-Bastard from the University of Central Auchtermuchty.

On BBC Breakfast today she said explicitly that she was not criticising teachers, rather the infrastructure. The Committee seems to be suggesting a split into a pure- or applied maths option for GCSE. Sounds sensible to me.

I'd much rather hear from Professor Beardy-Bastard from the University of Central Auchtermuchty. Would be such a refreshing change to see academics instead of celebs.

But you can understand why the media wanted her, surely? She chaired the committee and got a lot more publicity for this than an academic would.

The full report is here.

I must admit, as soon as I heard "Carol Vorderman thinks..." I did automatically think 'I do fuck off'. So, I think she's a huge liability as well.

I start the thread just after seeing her on the news saying that a lot of maths teachers were a bit crap [with the cat's-bum-face].

Now that may (or may not) be true. But if it's true, Ofsted inspections, class observations and the evidence of results will already have provided the government with the emprical data to do something about this a long time ago; especially as it affects 5-16 year olds.

I wouldn't much like to be chaired by Vordeman. She might try to sell me a guaranteed death plan.

I know where you're coming from Euphemia, but I just see "Celebrity-in-a-tight-dress-showing-off-her-bum (again. Zzzzz).

I can't abide the woman either, but I'm interested in the committee's recommendations so I'm putting that aside.

Perhaps my question should have been 'Has no-one in government or in education learned from Carol Vordeman's appearance on Questiontime?'

She was shocking, btw, if you haven't seen it. Fumbling for full sentences, peering down at her notes, missing the point, right up Cameron's arse...

Yes, LineRunner I would love to see that (except I never watch QuestionTime) but I will faff about on the net and see if I can. Unfortunatley I think all these media people over-estimate how much their "public" adore them and hang on every word .... [hmmm]

janelikesjam, It would be last year possibly (I find it hard to measure time these days!) that she ws on. There were such high expectations that she would rattle cages and be fluently incisive...

A lot of slebs really fuck up on Questiontime. I think that's why Hugh Grant was pretty impressive. He stayed languid and articulate.