An alternative maths qualification could look “a lot more like a driving test” with a 100 per cent pass rate possible, an exam board has said.
Speaking at the Liberal Democrat conference today, an AQA spokesperson said the exam board believed a new approach was needed if maths teaching is extended to 18.
AQA’s head of external affairs Reza Schwitzer said: “We want to do something separate to exams that we see 100 per cent of people achieving. It looks a lot more like a driving test than a GCSE or A level.”
His comments follow reports that Rishi Sunak is planning to establish a new style of British Baccalaureate that would make maths and English compulsory until age 18.
The prime minister had previously said that all students should study maths in some form until 18.
Panellists at the Education Policy Institute event today flagged previous research from UCL Institute of Education that found adults in England have worse levels of financial literacy than those in many other developed countries.
In addition, charity National Numeracy said in 2019 that nearly half of all working-age adults in the UK have the numeracy levels of a primary school child.
Mr Schwitzer asserted that, instead of sorting students by grade, the new qualification could be structured more like a driving test.
He added: “There has been this conversation about maths and it hasn’t really been clear to me exactly what they’re trying to solve. I think the answer to that is really that we’re talking about numeracy.”
Mr Schwitzer also said that, for people going on to apprenticeships, passing maths at GCSE may not be the most useful measure of their numeracy ability.
“We think there needs to be a change in the resit policy and a different form of assessment for them,” he said.
Natalie Perera, chief executive of EPI, added: “We’re not just looking at A-level and academic maths - it’s more maths in the broadest functional sense.”
“We absolutely do need more people taking maths to a high level but we need to fix the building blocks first,” said Munira Wilson, Lib Dem education spokesperson.
“I would support a move long term towards a British Baccalaureate-style [qualification] but it needs to be developed cross-party.”
Rob Eastaway, director of Maths Inspiration, advocated for more funding for core maths, but said there needed to be more teachers qualified in maths to make it work first.
He added that, talking to people in industries using maths, he had found there was a need for more skills in statistics and real-life maths to be taught in schools.
