The M-word

It was a seemingly innocent question… 

Charlie, a tutee who was really struggling with his GCSE Maths, asked me ‘Why does any of this stuff matter to me, Sir?’. As I considered it further, I had to concede that he had a point.

GCSE Maths, especially as it is currently taught, is heavily weighted towards academic pursuits (Pythagoras’ Theorem, Trigonometry, Calculus etc) rather than more practical applications. For Charlie, a teen more interested in all things sports and unlikely to pursue a massively academic career, they are as much use as a chocolate teapot.

Having started my teaching career at 50 and with a Silicon Valley career in technology under my belt – I had been extremely motivated to help others achieve high academic outcomes in maths. However, Charlie taught me that education is not a one-size fits all solution and a large part of our current curriculum is likely mis-targeted. Perhaps it could do with a real-world refresh embracing the needs of both apprentices and their future employers ?

For too many young adults and the wider adult population, maths is simply an anathema.  That was certainly the case for Charlie and in that moment, it struck me. It’s not about maths per say but about developing real-world numeracy in more students as early as possible. Numeracy being the functional and practical skills required on a day-to-day basis. Skills like managing your money, getting the best deals on long-term contracts (phone, broadband, loans etc), estimating how best to allocate your time, understanding the data on the news and other things that will help life make more sense.

On the Road to Damascus….

I decided to change the narrative and my approach.  Over the next 12 months Charlie and I spent 60 minutes a week together, during which I tried to make every topic in the syllabus more relevant to his life – and some of them were certainly not obviously so. Slowly it started to make sense to him (and to me). Eventually he passed his GCSE Maths with room to spare, after having been predicted to barely scrape by. Understanding the difference that good numeracy-based decisions could make in his future endeavours, made all the difference.

A large societal need that must be addressed in the UK (and elsewhere too)….

Changing a national education system (or even a curriculum) affecting millions of students is not trivial and, sadly, just does not happen quickly enough - even in a world where seismic shifts are required due to game-changing technology advances.

This video from Izzy Garbutt (a Youth MP playing devil’s advocate in Parliament) - is brilliant, passionate and sums up exactly where we are today in the UK. It is also true of many other education systems around the world.

Fixing this issue for struggling adult learners should not only be their problem, but also a focus for educators, technologists, corporates, government and psychologists. Post-COVID the gaps in every student’s core maths education have likely only further increased.

At Numeracy 4 Life (N4L) we are on it. We are working hard to rebuild the numeracy skills and confidence of an adult working population who feel they do not have the tools to succeed in the modern world. We believe this is an important mission and our cross-functional team of technologists, instructional designers, learning difficulties teachers, academics spanning psychology, pedagogy, core syllabus, AI etc are uniquely placed to address this societal issue. It will, however, also require a massive collaboration across government, industry, charities, society and academia.

N4L and our partners are now deep into our product trials. These are focused on improving the confidence and employability outcomes of a range of neglected adult learner populations.  Watch this space…