Less than a third of state schools and colleges were offering the chance for students to take core maths last year, an analysis by the Royal Society has found.
It has also revealed today that only around 7 per cent of A-level students who did not take A-level maths took the core maths qualification.
And in nearly 10 per cent of local education authorities (LEAs) in England, no schools or colleges had entries in the post-16 qualification.
Core maths was first introduced in 2014 as an opportunity for students not studying A-level maths to study an alternative course in the subject.
The Royal Society has mapped the take-up of core maths in 2021-22, revealing the LEAs with the lowest proportion of schools or colleges that were then offering core maths.
These include Rutland, North East Lincolnshire, Isle of Wight, Hartlepool, Halton, Knowsley, Rochdale, Harrow, Barnet, Havering, Merton, Islington and Kensington and Chelsea, none of which had any schools offering the qualification.
The Royal Society said this leaves around 150,000 students a year with little to no maths education at post-16. It is calling for a comprehensive plan to significantly increase the uptake of the subject.
Recruitment issues
Association of School and College Leaders general secretary Geoff Barton said that schools often find it difficult to offer core maths in “attractive and cost-effective” ways because of the post-16 funding structure. He also highlighted recruitment challenges.
Only 63 per cent of the target number of maths teachers were recruited into initial teacher training (ITT) for 2023-24. This is worse than in 2022-23, when 88 per cent of the target was met.
“This lack of maths teachers is further compounded by the fact that there are far more students taking GCSE maths resits than core maths,” Mr Barton added.
“Presently schools and colleges have no choice but to prioritise maths teachers for these resits, as the resits are a condition of funding requirement.
“Until there is reform of this resit policy there will always be too few maths teachers to be freed up to teach core maths.”
What is core maths?
Core maths focuses on teaching students maths they can apply to the real world and employment they may go on to. It teaches students to understand mathematical concepts, data and finances in their broadest sense.
In 2020, researchers at the University of Leeds said core maths could be key to helping 16-19 students catch up post-Covid.
The Royal Society found that only 11,683 students across 740 provisions sat the core maths exam in 2021-22. More than half of the schools and colleges entered 10 or fewer candidates.
Prime minister Rishi Sunak has said that he wants all students to study some form of maths to age 18 under the proposed new Advanced British Standard (ABS). Ministers have said that introducing this new qualification fully is expected to take around a decade.
The Royal Society says that it sees core maths as an important stepping stone towards achieving Mr Sunak’s goal.
‘An important stepping stone’
Royal Society president Sir Adrian Smith said: “There is a huge proportion of students that are more than capable of studying core maths and there is no reason why they should not be encouraged to do so.
“We just need to make sure they have access to it. A comprehensive plan to support the significantly greater take-up of core maths qualifications would be an important stepping stone towards achieving a goal of maths for all to 18.”
The British Academy and Royal Society said last year that the government should provide funding so that all schools and colleges can offer the qualification, as well as funding to upskill teachers to deliver it.
A Department for Education spokesperson said: “Maths continues to be the most popular A Level. We have transformed the curriculum and invested £100 million in the Maths Hubs programme to improve maths teaching.”
The spokesperson added that the ABS would make students had the numeracy skills needed to succeed, and said: “Our reforms are already improving maths education and driving up standards. Just last week, England was ranked 11th in the world for maths, up from 27th in 2009.”
