Hannah Fry: studying maths until 18 will traumatise teenagers – not transform Britain
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Rishi Sunak has pledged that all school children must continue maths after GCSE level. Mathematician Hannah Fry says it will cause more harm than good.
By Hannah Fry
I have been a professor of mathematics for a decade, and I am well aware that maths has traumatised school children for years. Ask an adult what their childhood memories are of the subject and it is never apathetic. They either loved it or they hated it. Those that hated it remember it with pain.
So I was surprised to learn about Rishi Sunak’s new policy announcement, in which he has pledged that all school pupils will be made to study mathematics up to the age of 18, in a bid to combat numeracy rates. Currently in the UK, eight million adults only possess the skill level of primary school pupils.
Undoubtedly Sunak has picked up on something really important. The UK’s school children are unprepared for our data-driven world. The workforce has changed, and the world has changed. Twenty years ago, you could have enjoyed a...
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