@tjagain - you had best avoid Scottish education system which uses the terms maths and numeracy... 😆
We don't have an anti-maths problem, we have an anti-intellectualism problem which is far more serious. It's not cool to be academic in general, which causes problems across the board in education. Which then has far reaching consequences for society.
You need skilled and well trained teachers to teach
basic mathsin Primary school.
In my wife's experience this is a much bigger issue.
@tjagain – you had best avoid Scottish education system which uses the terms maths and numeracy…
thats OK - I'm happy with numeracy and arithmetic being synonyms but numeracy and maths are not the same thing *twitches*
I did O Grade maths and O grade arithmetic back in the day
I'm struggling a bit with the whole premise of this....
We joke about not being able to do maths, but we’d never make a joke about not being able to read.
I can't recall ever hearing anyone joke about not being able to do maths? Can you?
https://twitter.com/RishiSunak/status/1647888688427286528?s=20
He literally* lives in a parallel universe.
[ * sorry, not sorry ]
Would love to see a checkbox saying "properly fund maths teaching at all levels of education".
I can’t recall ever hearing anyone joke about not being able to do maths? Can you?
I think I have, but I couldn't work it out.
...and besides when half the kids these days are leaving school with a lower than average understanding of maths, something needs to be done.
I think I have, but I couldn’t work it out.
😂
On a more serious note though, it's not dissimilar to the people who joke about not being IT literate. Almost with pride as they struggle to open an email or print to PDF.
😳
…and besides when half the kids these days are leaving school with a lower than average understanding of maths, something needs to be done.
If they've not picked it up by 16 then maybe we're teaching it wrong?
Almost with pride as they struggle to open an email or print to PDF.
Often, it's not really pride, it's an attempt to save face. Humour is often a way to deflect embarrassment.
If they’ve not picked it up by 16 then maybe we’re teaching it wrong?
How would you teach it so that more than half have a better than average understanding?
…and besides when half the kids these days are leaving school with a lower than average understanding of maths, something needs to be done.
I saw what you did there... 🙂
EDIT: And there.
Adults who cannot understand basic maths ought to be embarrassed, Rishi Sunak will say
Let's hope that Sunak isn't embarrassed by not understanding the basic rules concerning ministerial interests eh?
Well actually I am hoping that he will be embarrassed.
Anyway he's now up for his childcare scheme that funny enough benefits his wife
Adults who cannot understand basic maths ought to be embarrassed, Rishi Sunak will say
Do you reckon he'll be embarrassed when he realises that due to Tory cuts to education over the last decade, there aren't enough maths teachers to implement or deliver his plans?
Surely he should have done some sort of basic counting like "how many maths teachers do we need?" vs "how many maths teachers do we actually have?" sum...?
AFAIK Infosys are still operating in Russia too
Let’s hope that Sunak isn’t embarrassed by not understanding the basic rules concerning ministerial interests eh?
My understanding of this (now a few weeks out of date) is that he can't really go wrong with rules on "ministerial interests" because the PM ultimately judges and enforces them. But rules concerning MPs more generally can't be so easily side stepped. He (not him of course, unnamed people speaking for him) tried to claim that he was reporting his interests as a minister instead of as an MP, so that was the end of it... looks like that nonsense isn't working... which is reassuring... systems really need to be shown to work, given the mess of recent of years, to rebuild and regain some public trust.
It isn't improving maths skills that will get this country out of the hole it is in (though I am not anti-maths, just s at it).
The two most recent times this country got itself out of a hole was due to the nations creative skills, do the math:
The thing that got us out of the black and into the red after the post WW2 slump was the Beatles and other creative industries. The balance of payments tipped from defect to profit as the world started to consume British cultural product by paying for it. The Nations reputation didn't do too badly out of it either.
Similarly during the Thatcher era. Britain's international reputation recovered due to our cultural output once again. When MTV arrived British bands and videomakers absolutely dominated it's output. Another big cultural win bit a lot of kerching as well, as the world once again dug into its pockets to buy the kind of products it expected the UK to be good at .
These factors are so underestimated, taken for granted even but in terms of revenue the numbers are huge.
Britain's fortunes will turn around once again when (or if) we start to project creative cultural power once again. Not by being a bit less s at maths.
This gov't has already educationally devalued arts and humanities subjects, now it wants to punish young minds further by forcing them to do maths? I can only imagine the nations youth will see this as a form of detention.
and besides when half the kids these days are leaving school with a lower than average understanding of maths, something needs to be done.
Not sure whether this was meant as a joke or not but it could be construed one of two ways:
1) kids leave school with a lower than average maths understanding of all school leavers (which is impossible as others have pointed out.) or…
2) kids leave school with a lower than average maths understanding of the whole population (which is how I understood it) which is entirely possible.
Is it possible that the latest business could be the end for Sunak?
If so, could the government survive or would they have to call a GE?
Is it possible that the latest business could be the end for Sunak?If so, could the government survive or would they have to call a GE?
Nah, they'll just change PM again. It's about time we had a new one.
Is it possible that the latest business could be the end for Sunak?
If so, could the government survive or would they have to call a GE?
I would say
1)no, on the Johnsonian scale of political scandal this barely registers (If it rumbles on through the local elections and the Tories get spanked then, it really could be the end for Sunak)
2)theyd be under no obligation to do so whatsoever & with current polls theyd be mad to do so
Nah, they’ll just change PM again. It’s about time we had a new one.
Don't even think it! You know who we'll end up with, don't you?
Is it possible that the latest business could be the end for Sunak?
Not at all. Its not really a significant breach in any way IMO although it would be nice if it did. However its a lovely bit of ammo for the labour party
If so, could the government survive or would they have to call a GE?
NO need at all. It doesn't change the tory majority
Anyway he’s now up for his childcare scheme that funny enough benefits his wife
Thew only interesting part of this is WHEN did she buy the shares. Obviously the plan to implement this policy would have been a shortish time in the making, so it would be very telling if she bought the shares at about the same time.
I'll wager thats the case. Corruption at the highest levels of government, but this time it would be too coincidental to deny and claim it just to be down to luck.
Not at all. Its not really a significant breach in any way IMO although it would be nice if it did. However its a lovely bit of ammo for the labour party
Well let's see if Labour's diminishing lead recovers ... Because Sunak is as expected gaining ground.
https://twitter.com/RedfieldWilton/status/1647993437726072836?t=cslcWiJ3AsbiY-wnD6B8vQ&s=19
that is hilarious
Anyway… that slide… job title includes “data analyst”… a cool job you didn’t know you needed maths for… really?!! Didn’t know that a data analyst might need maths?!?
At least they are admitting that education leads to growth. Now… how about restoring further education funding back to the levels they were before we foolishly let the Tories run things…!!!
TBF I did tons of data analtyics in my last job, but I have only a fairly basic level of maths- failed higher maths twice, I just don't have the right shaped brain for it but I do have the right sort of brain for intuitive maths and stats wrangling, and basically seeing the sense and the patterns. I could be wrong but I don't think I ever used any maths that I was taught after primary school for it.
Maths genuinely is something that a lot of people will never be good at, there are parts of it that are just far harder for some people to grasp than others. But mostly it's disinterest, once you get past everyday useful maths it's pretty hard to sell kids on it. And then, further down the line they want to do a degree or a career that requires it but they'd long since given up because they just couldn't see what it was for.
(my uni's maths department offered a maths course which they taught in local colleges, specifically because there were loads of kids who couldn't articulate into our courses. This sort of thing is how you actually fix the problem- and not one of ht epeople involved ever accused those kids of being stupid or lazy or thought they should be ashamed.
The other half of it is being realistic about what a useful level of maths actually is for most people. And yep, the tory scheme is absolutely farcical for that. "Our approach is to force kids to continue to do maths at school long after the point where they've stopped learning" Hardly a word about understanding what it's for, about bridging the gap between basics and advanced, and so much of their chat is about basic numeracy. It's not a policy.
More people studying maths at further education is good with me, to be honest… but how that equates with defunding further education in the state sector is the square peg in a round hole question. And the way to get more people to study maths up to 18… is to improve the teaching up to 16… again… fund teaching maths at primary school and secondary school! No extra little teams outside of schools helping out a few schools with the reach and pushiness to get linked up, and advising most other schools what they’re getting wrong (hint, it’ll be trying to do much with too little)… just better fund teaching maths in schools. Fund teachers. Teachers.
Problem is, a lot of year one primary kids in deprived areas come to school with out being properly toilet trained or able to speak properly, never mind knowing the alphabet or being able to count to 100.
Parents can't just rely on schooling to bring them up. It's a wide social problem.
A reminder that teaching in some areas is much harder than elsewhere. And that schools in those areas also need extra non-teaching staff, and access to services (supposedly) provided by council. Cuts, cuts, cuts… falling most heavily in the areas Sunak bragged to Conservatives in his failed attempt to be elected leader that he would draw more funds away from, towards less deprived areas where less help is needed, but those Conservatives lived and represented.
https://twitter.com/thetimes/status/1648068824879464455?t=apdhHz5y-mFSebNgA0hIOg&s=19
I know it got posted just up there ^^ but 12hrs between announcing the policy (again) and then it being quietly shelved is quite something!
Also, if you've got some time, the quote tweets are worth a read! 😂
It seems to have been overlooked that Mr Sunak has redefined the word irony whilst talking about teacher strikes. When asked about the latest vote to continue strike action until Christmas he said it was “voted for by a minority of members”. This overlooked him being voted in by a tiny minority of the electorate, the Tories being voted in by a minority of the electorate and Brexit being voted for by a minority of the electorate.
I wonder if Sunak could do a weekly shop on a fixed budget and, in his head, adjust what he put in the basket due to yet another week of price rises…
The price of staple foods such as cheddar cheese, white bread and pork sausages has soared by up to 80% in some shops over the past year, in further evidence of how inflation is hitting those on the tightest budgets the hardest.
and there was I thinking taxes were for the little people
For a supposedly educated and intelligent man, he's certainly slow on the uptake when he's walking into a dangerous situation...
https://twitter.com/PoliticsJOE_UK/status/1647976365470412800
For a supposedly educated and intelligent man, he’s certainly slow on the uptake when he’s walking into a dangerous situation…
Not sure he's "thick" as such*, I think that, like many MPs, he just considers the rules to be for other people.
*Unlike Truss who genuinely is denser than a black hole and with a similar level of personality.
This is a game for many of them. How much can you earn on the side, how much influence can you buy, how many donors are knocking on your door promising favours in return for cash?
His tax avoidance is fair and above board and legitimate. Yours means you're a thieving little shit, denying the country it's fair share.
Rules are just something to be swerved for them.
I think its just poor political instincts allied to entitlement. I don't think its deliberate with Sunak - it just shows how out of touch he is and what a poor politician he is.
Cameron for example would not have walked into that I don't think
Piggy Cameron was hardly squeaky clean with with his snout in the troughs of Greensill and Illumina.
Oh no - he sure was not - but he did have decent political insticts and would have seen that trap with TRAP stamped onit and dodged it.
corrupt as anything for sure but not politically naive
