Indian Express, Agencies, London: Thousands of 11-year-olds in Britain are leaving primary school with maths skills of kids, who are four years junior to them, a new survey has revealed. The startling findings came to light after an analysis of last year’s SATs results. They showed that 27,500 students, who were aged 11, were going on to secondary school with the numeracy skills of 7-year-old kids. That is a staggering one in 20 of the total. Boys perform worse than girls, with 15,600 lagging well behind. Separate figures published two
weeks ago also revealed that one in three GCSE pupils fail to get at least a C in maths. “After 13 years of Labour, too many children are failing at maths,” the Sun quoted a Government source as saying. “Employers and universities complain about the quality of our children’s maths. We have to put right Labour’s failure.” Former Countdown star Carol Vorderman has called for making maths compulsory for pupils until they leave school at 18. In a report, she said 22 per cent of pupils aged 16 to 19 are “functionally innumerate” — implying they have no basic grasp of maths and arithmetic.Source: Indian Express
