Subtraction action

The caveman stared at the mammoth steaks in front of him. There were ten of them, and five members of his family. But as arithmetic had not yet been invented, he did not know how to share them out. In fact, it seemed easier not to share them at all. "Grrr!" he yelled, and grabbed as many as he could. Then everyone else piled in and fought over what was left.

Fortunately, humanity has moved on from this state of affairs. But in Rishi Sunak's opinion, it has not moved far enough.

"In a world where data is everywhere and statistics underpin every job, letting our children out into that world without those skills is letting our children down," he said in his first speech of 2023.

Even outside work, he said, people need the confidence to deal with mortgagesA type of loan from a bank used to buy a house or land. and other aspects of their personal finances.

His solution is to ensure that all school pupils in England study some form of maths up until the age of 18 - which is what happens in most developed countries.

Sunak's idea was welcomed by the Financial Times, which argued that, with technology changing so rapidly, "a thorough grounding in mathematics is critical to equip today's students for the future". It also pointed out that the highest-paid jobs generally involve being good at maths.

But in the Guardian, Simon Jenkins criticised "the cult of maths" in schools around the world. "The reason," he wrote, "is that it is so easily measurable. Maths is right or wrong. Its targets are international, its results classifiable, its league tables definitive for any government."

This suits people who think that exam results are the only way of telling whether a school is any good. But, he claimed, "it has driven sports, arts and creativity into oblivion and reduced schools to exam factories".

Nor does he believe that a country's economic success depends on maths. The country with the most successful economy, the US, has been placed 38th in the world at the subject.¹ China is in first place, yet many rich families send their children to schools in the West for a more balanced education.

Sunak's critics question whether his aim is realistic, since there is a shortage of maths teachers in state secondary schools. According to one survey,² in 2021 45% of schools used teachers of other subjects to give some maths lessons.

But Sunak also said that the British must "reimagine our approach to numeracyThe ability to understand and use numbers. ". And some believe that the most important thing is simply to make maths lessons more interesting.

One professor, JoAnne Growney, emphasises the connection between maths and poetry. Traditional forms of poetry such as the sonnetA 14-line poem with a fixed rhyme scheme. and haikuThe Japanese word derives from hokku which literally means "starting verse". Although Matsuo Bash? (1644-1694) is the most famous haiku poet, the form did not become known by that name until the 19th Century. use strict numbers of lines and syllables. And poets need to be as precise with words as mathematicians are with numbers.

In France, the two came together in a group called OULIPO³ and created "the Fib". Based on the Fibonacci sequenceA number sequence in which each number is equal to the sum of the previous two numbers. , it is a poem in which the number of syllables in each line is the sum of those in the two preceding ones.

Yes: The key to the future lies in AIA computer programme that has been designed to think.  and quantum computing. Maths is essential for working with these, as well as for coding and analysing data. It also helps with problem-solving and abstract thinking.

No: Most people only need to use very basic maths in their daily lives, and since we now have calculators and computers to help us, numeracy is actually less important than ever before.    

Or... Everyone needs a balance of skills to lead a full life. Maths is very important, but so are all the other academic subjects, as well as extra-curricular activities such as sport and drama.