Nuffield Curriculum Centre

Maths issues

Making Mathematics Count

www.dfes.gov.uk

I have finally got round to looking at the DfES response to the Adrian Smith report on post-14 maths education.

I was interested to see what the DfES has to say about curriculum issues. Not very much - it seems. The DfES aspires to 'a curriculum, assessment and qualifications framework that responds to the needs of every learner and allows them to fulfil their potential'.

Easy to say or write but - in maths - extraordinarily difficult to achieve and the Smith report does not offer siginficant new insights into how it might be done.

The DfES resorts to highlighting four key principles that underpin the 14 - 19 agenda. The first of these is 'excellence - stretching the most able'. Excellence is a grossly overused term which should be banned from political rhetoric for a time. What we need above all is good provision for everyone not excellence for the few. All too often the best is the enemy of the good.

We are interested in the maths curriculum. This is a subject where needs of learners are particularly complex. Our current work relates to the needs of those who should be learning how to apply and use maths effectively in other areas of work. Hence our support for Free-standing Maths Qualifications and the AS Use of Mathematics.

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