Stephen Bush’s paean to the Tories’ achievement in raising England’s ranking in the Pisa international league table for school maths doesn’t tell the whole story (Opinion, March 7). This has only been achieved with an unambitious curriculum which prioritises rote learning. Last year it was possible for a student to be graded as “working at the expected level” at the end of Key Stage 2 without attempting any algebra, geometry, measurement or statistics problems encountered in years 5 and 6, according to analysis by Rose Keating, an adviser to Norfolk County Council.
The gap this opens up leads directly to a third of learners receiving a grade 4 standard pass or below at GCSE, and to the consequential requirements for resits and remedial work at 16-19. Even with its two-tier mathematics GCSE, England fails the maths education of
30 per cent of students.
Professor Frank Land
Emeritus Professor of Information Systems, London School of Economics
Ian Benson
Director, Sociality Mathematics CIC
London W4, UK
