At an event in Parliament today Gosport MP Caroline Dinenage unveiled her Parliamentary Group for Maths and Numeracy's report on early years learning.
In 2013/14, 28% of children in England failed to achieve the expected level in mathematics at the end of the early years foundation stage. The first report from the All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) calls for a better trained and qualified workforce that inspires a 'can-do' attitude in early years maths teaching. It is informed by a briefing session which took place in
At the event, the skills Minister, Nick Boles MP spoke about the hugely significant impact that a child's early experience with maths can have on their numerical ability as an adult. Meanwhile, the TV presenter and maths guru, Johnny Ball highlighted the need to promote maths in play.Westminster in June when a number of education experts spoke to MPs and Peers about issues in their fields of expertise.
Caroline commented:
"Only one in five 16-64 year olds in England have numeracy skills equivalent to GCSE grade C and this situation is estimated to cost the UK economy £20 billion per year.
It is clear that we need to act fast. I'm pleased that the thought piece launched today by the APPG sets out some clear recommendations to the Government and am confident that Nick Boles will feed back to the rest of his department positively about the contents of the document."
Caroline formed the All Party Parliamentary Group at the beginning of the year in order to raise awareness about the importance of basic maths skills and to inform policy on improving adult numeracy and the future teaching of maths in schools.
You can read the report here.