Is Rishi Sunak utterly thick?

[noblegiraffe]

Today he actually went ahead and announced his plans for everyone studying maths till 18.

And all everyone commenting on this on the news or social media has been saying today is "but this is mad because there aren't enough maths teachers to teach the qualifications we already have".

And teachers including maths teachers, are going on strike again next week because the government refuses to pay them properly. The government also failed to meet its maths teacher trainee recruitment target last year and will again this year.

This announcement just gives everyone the wonderful opportunity to point these governmental failings again and again.

Why the fuck would anyone with any political sense announce a policy that cannot happen and gives everyone the opportunity to point out that it can't happen because the government are shit?

Just why?

Didn't someone promise us all free internet access? Whatever happened to him? Promising something that is actually useful, unpopular, promising to deliever something that will crash the economy, yeah vote winner.

Maths teaching is generally woeful in this country. It is absurd that kids learn maths from age 4 and yet so many fail maths gcse. The actual gcse is ridiculously difficult and most is irrelevant to the vast majority- may as well learn Latin.

Bring in a new numeracy qualification and leave maths to those who love it.

What they should be teaching is things like taxes!

Is that perhaps because it is not in the interests of the ruling class to have the serfs being skilled and with critical thinking skills? The ruling class much prefer it when we doff our caps to them because they are so superior, see for example JRM.

Yes I agree total and utter twit. Maths for some students is impossible, they are unable to retain formulas, no amount of education, maths tutoring will change how their brains are wired. I know this as we tried everything to help our dyslexic DS, private tutor, extra support at school, no way would he have passed, however many times he sat the GCSE. Unfortunately people that excel at maths simply don’t under how hard maths is for others. It will yet another waste of money.

Is that because a whole lot of Tory MPs seem to not understand that taxes and laws apply to them?

In all seriousness, as others have said, post -16 is too late, really, to solve the problem Rishi says he's trying to address.

We have research that says the level of maths qualification of the teacher does correlate with progress (this isn't true for all subjects). So the real issue is the lack of specialists teaching maths at ks1,2, and unfortunately 3.

There was a drive for a while to get people with maths degrees into primary schools. I think each primary school having some teachers who are really confident in maths and can share a real love of the subject is important. And then in y7, if all students were taught by a specialist, we can build on that effectively and keep their enthusiasm and skills strong. In that case, most people would come out at 16 with the skills they need for life/further study.

As it is, the children in primary school may be being taught by a TA, who may only have basic maths skills themselves, in secondary they may be taught maths by a PE teacher or a range of supply teachers. For too many students ks4 is the first time they actually get to access specialist maths teaching. And then it's too late.

Does this youtube programme also have videos on what the law is?

I'm asking for a friend who find it confusing, also struggles with their hair and finances.

A certain proportion have to fail. That's how the system is set up. Not by teachers or schools or exam boards, but by the system

Hawkins03:

'
Your MrsHerculePoirot,
The point I'm suggesting, people easily point to lack of teachers ect, well with technology today majority of the population can teach themselves as the same knowledge teachers would teach, is the same or similar information as would be on eg YouTube etc.'

And yet, even with all this technology and all these platforms and Khan Academy *already being here, right now', still we have the situation where many children struggle with maths.

All these people saying the answer lies with tech ... we have the tech. It exists.

And for a significant proportion ... it's not magically transforming their engagement with maths.

And just wishing, however hard, isn't going to magically transform that.

What you are actually saying is, 'We will wave a magic wand and the young people not engaging will magically engage.'

No.

There is no magic.

What gets children to engage is multi-determined but a big part of the solution is getting adults, in a structurally enabled position, ideally with some training, to engage them.

People like ... teachers.

We know that about 30% will fail their maths GCSE this summer before anyone even gets in the exam hall, regardless of how good (or bad) this cohort is at maths. It's decided in advance.

Here's the DfE poster for their policy.

I just can't even.

Because he's got fuck all else "positive" to announce, I think.

I agree that to anyone with a brain who understands the facts about teachers it looks very weird though.

Dd said 28% gets you a pass - presumably a 4.

That means 72% is deemed not essential. That's nuts.

Also, not everyone wants to be a banker or a data analyst.

We'd do better to encourage compulsory History and Geography if we want a well rounded and well educated workforce in the future.

I wonder why he doesn’t suggest that kids study politics up to the age of 18? Or at all.

Because it's behind a paywall, I am copying and pasting what the expert (the one and only one they asked! On Friday!) for their now ditched social media campaign had to say...

My work involves analysing the financial performance of films, studying industry trends and identifying which factors contribute to success.
Curiosity and my passion for film led me to self-educate and apply mathematical concepts throughout my career, using the abundance of free resources accessible on the internet. When I was that curious 16-year-old, I was assured that calculators would always be a highly coveted scarce resource. But nowadays we can all access staggeringly smart AI models with whom we can chat about mathematical concepts.
While the importance of numeracy skills cannot be overstated, it is just as essential to acknowledge the many other skills and qualities that students need to thrive. Financial literacy, emotional intelligence, compassion and the ability to build healthy relationships are just a few areas where our current education system falls short. To prioritise maths over these skills is short-sighted, out of touch and grossly unfair on students.
Forcing students to study maths until the age of 18 risks stifling the passions and interests of individual students, the very qualities that education should be cultivating. Instead of imposing a blanket requirement that many will resent, schools should focus on helping students discover who they are and then provide the necessary support and resources for them to become the best version of that person. This approach would be far more effective than imposing an outdated notion that “more maths equals good” across the board.
This hurried, last-minute search for individuals who use maths in their everyday jobs to justify new policy tells us a lot. Instead of rushing to finish their homework just before the deadline, the policy makers at No 10 should apply themselves to understanding the diverse educational needs of students and to researching and developing strategies that encourage individual growth and empower our young people to reach their full potential.

Stephen Follows is a data analyst in the film industry (this is a 'cool job' that requires maths. I mean it genuinely is isn't it?!) . Stephen Follows did not do maths after the age of 16.

Sunak's handlers and paymasters are no fools. All they are doing is feeding their media with headlines that on the face of it seem sensible but which under scrutiny turn out to be implausible nonsense, knowing that most people will only read the headline and that any attack from the opposition is easily repelled. Who is going to argue against better maths teaching, shorter NHS waiting lists etc. even if the government has no idea how to achieve these goals?

They too can do the maths. While you can't fool all of the people all of the time, under the UK voting system, they only need to fool 29% of the electorate once every 5 years in order to have a 80-seat majority. So they concentrate on the fears and prejudices of the 25%-30% - the 70% are of no interest to them and they don't need them.

Lol I have no idea how you get 6,

and I will not tell you my profession! 🤣🤣🤣

LemonSwan
I think to get 6 what someone would do is:
6÷2(2+1)
3(2+1)
3(3)

Then add them together to get 6.

It's not right but it's the only way I can think of that someone might get 6 and it's by not understanding the basics.

johnson just had two phrases for distraction
vaccines
and
world beating

It would be good wouldnt it and quite a good life skill, learning how politics, the judiciary, economy, banking, food supplies, all the basics to life in the U.K.

Just a lack of understanding of pedology.

Yep. The only future the Tory party care about is their own futures tucked safely away in tax havens.

What really needs looking at is not what happens post 16, but pre-18, and what we really want the Maths curriculum and suite of assessments to do.

The content of the Primary Maths curriculum, for example, is sufficient to gain a 3 at GCSE (and as an enterprising Y6 colleague of mine showed, by giving her Y6s Core GCSE papers following interesting posts by some Maths association online, the questions to gain that 3 are often much more straightforward than convoluted SATs questions). That’s bonkers - both because so much of the early years of secondary are repetition for higher attainers (who switch off because they are bored) and because the primary content has to be covered too fast and at too high a level for those who actually need consolidation of the basics and memorisation of key number facts.

Then at GCSE there isn’t a ‘functional skills’ or ‘arithmetic’ option to demonstrate what students actually know and can do in terms of ‘useful real life Maths’. Back in the day, my (Oxbridge bound) DBro did CSE Arithmetic alongside his entire comprehensive cohort as well as O level Maths. Everyone walked away with a Maths qualification that showed what they could do.

Sort those things first.