World Maths Day

Tomorrow is World Maths Day, one of many attempts by different organisations to promote appreciation of mathematics and particularly to try to get children to engage with it.

The world is built upon mathematics and the importance of having strong numeracy skills keeps growing with every passing generation. Unfortunately, while the need for this understanding keeps growing, in reality people’s skills just aren’t keeping up.

In Crawley, the picture is even worse, with the percentage of pupils achieving A*-C grades in Maths and English being significantly lower than both the regional and national average.

For those children who leave school without the skills they need to succeed in the world, this is a personal tragedy, but for the UK as a whole with its ageing population this is a pool of talent the economy simply cannot afford to lose.

One of Labour’s five missions for Government is breaking down the barriers to opportunity, the outline of which makes considerable reference to ensuring children have strong numeracy skills.

Crucial to achieving this are the party’s plans for teacher recruitment and retention, to end the ever-increasing class sizes and enable teachers to given pupils the attention they need to thrive in their subjects.

Beyond this the party plans on focusing on ensuring that children are comfortable with maths from an early age, an early intervention approach designed to not only prepare the ground for more advanced maths education, but to encourage a more positive mindset to working with numbers. Much the same goal as World Maths Day itself.