Mathematics education in the United Kingdom

Mathematics education in the United Kingdom is largely carried out at ages 11–16 at secondary school. However most advanced Mathematics education in the UK takes place from 16-18, mostly in the sixth form. Mathematics education is not taught uniformly as exams and the syllabus vary across nation states, notably Scotland.

Mathematics
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History

The School Certificate was established in 1918, for education up to 16, with the Higher School Certificate for education up to 18; these were both established by the Secondary Schools Examinations Council (SSEC), which had been established in 1917.

1960s

The Joint Mathematical Council was formed in 1963 to improve the teaching of mathematics in UK schools. The Ministry of Education had been created in 1944, which became the Department of Education and Science in 1964. The Schools Council was formed in 1964, which regulated the syllabus of exams in the UK, and existed until 1984. The exam body Mathematics in Education and Industry in Trowbridge was formed in 1963, formed by the Mathematical Association; the first exam Additional Mathematics was first set in 1965.

Before calculators, many calculations would be done by hand with slide rules and log tables.

1970s

Decimal Day, on 15 February 1971, allowed less time on numerical calculations at school. The Metric system has curtailed lengthy calculations as well; the US, conversely, largely does not have the metric system.

1980s

Electronic calculators began to be owned at school from the early 1980s, becoming widespread from the mid-1980s. Parents and teachers believed that calculators would diminish abilities of mental arithmetic. Scientific calculators came to the aid for those working out logarithms and trigonometric functions.

Since 1988, exams in Mathematics at age sixteen, except Scotland, have been provided by the GCSE.

1990s

From the 1990s, mainly the late 1990s, computers became integrated into mathematics education at primary and secondary levels in the UK.

The specialist schools programme was introduced in the mid-1990s in England. Fifteen new City Technology Colleges (CTCs) from the early 1990s often focussed on Maths.

In 1996 the United Kingdom Mathematics Trust was formed to run the British Mathematical Olympiad, run by the British Mathematical Olympiad Subtrust. The United Kingdom Mathematics Trust summer school is held at The Queen's Foundation in birmingham each year.

2000s

Mathematics and Computing Colleges were introduced in 2002 as part of the widened specialist schools programme; by 2007 there were 222 of these in England.

The Excellence in Cities report was launched in March 1999, which led to the Advanced Extension Award in 2002, replacing the S-level for the top 10% of A-level candidates. Since 2008, the AEA is only available for Maths, provided by Edexcel; the scheme was introduced when the A* grade was introduced; the scheme is being provided until 2018.

In a 2006 House of Lords report on science education, the Lib Dem chair Baroness Sharp, took an interest in the reduced participation in Maths in schools; she had worked with the Science Policy Research Unit at the University of Sussex. The 2001 report by the Lords Science and Technology Committee led to the National Science Learning Centre (Science Learning Centres) at the University of York in 2006, with a Maths centre at University of Southampton.

2010s

Mathematics free schools were opened in 2014 - the King's College London Mathematics School in Lambeth, and Exeter Mathematics School in Devon; both were selective sixth form colleges; more selective sixth forms are to open in Cambridge, Surrey, Liverpool, Durham, and Lancaster. Some universities have refused to help set up these sixth forms.

A newer curriculum for Maths GCSE (and English) was introduced in September 2015, with a new grading scale of 1-9.

Nations

England
See also: Education in England and Science education in England

Mathematics education in England up to the age of 19 is provided, in the state sector, by the Department for Education, which was established in 2010.

Wales
See also: Secondary education in Wales

Wales takes the GCSE and A-level in Mathematics, but has its own Department for Education and Skills. Wales does not produce school league tables.

Scotland
See also: Secondary education in Scotland

Education Scotland, formed in 2011, regulates education at school in Scotland, with qualifications monitored by the Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) and the Mathematics syllabus follows the country's Curriculum for Excellence. Scotland does not produce school league tables.

Northern Ireland
See also: Education in Northern Ireland

Northern Ireland is the only country in the UK to have exclusively selective schools - it has sixty nine grammar schools. Mathematics education is provided by the Department of Education (DENI), with further education provided by the Department for Employment and Learning.

Primary level

The Department of Education and Science set up an Assessment of Performance Unit in 1976 to monitor attainment of children at a national level, with standards of mathematics being monitored from 1978 by the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER). Before this time, assessment of primary school standards had not been carried out at a national level.

Children at primary school are expected to know their times tables. Mostly they are not introduced to algebra. Children are taught about long division, fractions, decimals, averages, ratios, negative numbers, and long multiplication.

Secondary level

Study of Mathematics is compulsory up to the school leaving age. In general females, more than males, suffer from mathematical anxiety. An adverse form of mathematical anxiety is called dyscalculia.

Since the introduction of the GCSE, dumbing down has reduced the content of the Mathematics syllabus. Independent schools have a noted higher record in Mathematics than state schools, but they have a selective intake.

In 2019, 1 in 5 English and Maths lessons at UK secondary schools were taught by a teacher with no more than a GCSE in the subject. 44% of Maths lessons are taught by a teacher with no Mathematics degree. Around 7,500 Maths teachers in the UK have no higher qualification than Maths A-level; the recent introduction of a tougher Maths GCSE has been more difficult to teach for such teachers. In March 2016, Andreas Schleicher (German), the coordinator of the OECD's PISA, said that Mathematics teaching in the UK was a mile wide and an inch deep and that rigour means really having a high level of cognitive demand, and the UK is not doing well on it.[1]

Mathematics teachers

Qualifications vary by region; the East Midlands and London have the most degree-qualified Maths teachers and North East England the least.[2]For England about 40% mostly have a maths degree and around 20% have a BSc degree with QTS or a BEd degree. Around 20% have a PGCE, and around 10% have no higher qualification than A level Maths.

For schools without sixth forms, only around 30% of Maths teachers have a degree, but for schools with sixth forms and sixth form colleges around 50% have a Maths degree.

There are around 27,500 Maths teachers in England, of whom around 21,000 are Maths specialists; there are around 31,000 science teachers in England.

Sixth-form level

At A-level, participation by gender is broadly mixed; about 60% of A-level entrants are male, and around 40% are female.[3] Further Mathematics is an additional course available at A-level. A greater proportion of females take Further Maths (30%) than take Physics (15%), which at A-level is overwhelmingly a male subject.

Professor Robert Coe[4], Director of the Centre for Evaluation and Monitoring (CEM) at Durham University conducted research on grade inflation. By 2007, 25% of Maths A-level grades were an A; he found that an A grade A-level would have been a grade B in 1996 and a grade C in 1988. The Labour government wanted to expand higher education, so required 'proof' that academic standards at A-level appeared to be rising, or at least not falling, so requiring higher education to expand for this wider apparent academic achievement.

University level

Admission to Mathematics at university in the UK will require three A-levels, often good A-levels. It is prevalently males who study Maths at university, and has been for decades.

There are around 42-43,000 Maths undergraduates at British universities, with around 27,000 being male and around 16-17,000 being female. Mathematics at university is also taught to other physical sciences and Engineering, but much fewer women than men are taught on these types of courses.

Results by region in England

Of all A-level entrants at Key Stage 5, 23% take Maths A-level, with 16% of all female entrants and 30% of all male entrants; 4% of all entrants take Further Maths, with 2% of female entrants and 6% of male entrants. By number of A-level entries, 11.0% were Maths A-levels with 7.7% female and 15.0% male.[5]

In England in 2016 there were 81,533 entries for Maths A-level, with 65,474 from the state sector; there were 14,848 entries for Further Maths with 10,376 from the state sector

Entries for Further Maths in 2016 by region -

  • South East 2987
  • East of England 1270
  • North West 1111
  • South West 1070
  • West Midlands 868
  • East Midlands 774
  • Yorkshire and the Humber 749
  • North East 414

Results by LEA in England

Results shown are for 2016. In the 1980s, some areas with low Maths participation at A-level lost all sixth forms at the area's comprehensive schools, being replaced with stand-alone sixth form colleges, such as in Manchester and Portsmouth; this course of action may have helped in attracting qualified Maths teachers to those areas.

The supply of qualified (QTS in England and Wales) Maths teachers in the UK is largely a postcode lottery.

Lowest number of entries for Maths A-level

The north of England (except Lancashire) has a worse record for Mathematics entries at A-level than other regions.

Highest number of entries for Maths A-level
  • Hampshire 2573
  • Hertfordshire 2039
  • Kent 1775
  • Surrey 1668
  • Essex 1499
  • Lancashire 1492
  • Birmingham 1403
  • Buckinghamshire 1284
  • Barnet 1189

Trafford entered 505, which is high for a small borough and almost the same number as Cumbria. Kirklees entered 661, which is more than Sheffield's 596; Kirklees is a much smaller borough by population than Sheffield.[6]

Lowest number of entries for Further Maths A-level

Highest number of entries for Further Maths A-level

Hampshire and Hertfordshire are the top two for Maths and Further Maths

  • Hampshire 381
  • Hertfordshire 370
  • Kent 297
  • Surrey 276
  • Essex 260
  • Buckinghamshire 244
  • Lancashire 206
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See also

References
  1. Telegraph March 2016
  2. 2005 NFER survey
  3. A level entrants at STEM subjects in 2015 by gender
  4. Robert Coe
  5. SFR
  6. SFR 2017
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