• Home
    • About Us >
      • Blog
      • The Team
      • Advisory Panel
      • Contact Us
      • Press
      • From the PM
      • UNESCO UK Approved
      • UNESCO Patronage
  • Resources
    • 2022: CONFLICT
    • By Subject
    • By Key Stage
    • Tolerance Day Reading List
    • History of the World in 42 Moments
    • CLIMATE CHANGE
    • Political Systems
    • Media Literacy >
      • English
      • History
      • Maths
    • Assemblies
  • UNESCO
  • Home
    • About Us >
      • Blog
      • The Team
      • Advisory Panel
      • Contact Us
      • Press
      • From the PM
      • UNESCO UK Approved
      • UNESCO Patronage
  • Resources
    • 2022: CONFLICT
    • By Subject
    • By Key Stage
    • Tolerance Day Reading List
    • History of the World in 42 Moments
    • CLIMATE CHANGE
    • Political Systems
    • Media Literacy >
      • English
      • History
      • Maths
    • Assemblies
  • UNESCO
TOLERANCE DAY

read the latest from the today team

Sunak Sets Education atwitter

23/1/2023

0 Comments

 
​
New Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has proposed that all children should
learn Maths to the age of 18. It may be a well-intentioned plan but it
rather begs the question of what education is for.

Sunak’s speech in January 2023 was focused on building a world class
education system, an NHS focused on patients, stronger communities and
safer streets and a society that ‘truly values the family’. The danger
with such rhetoric is that it can be easily twisted – valuing the
family can come to mean ignoring the rights of less traditional family
styles. And that’s where Sunak’s focus on Maths to 18 as an education
solution falls at the first hurdle.

A fair and functional society requires an understanding of shared
goals and a commitment to achieving them. But that means unpicking the
language used, the definitions understood and the pathways to
achieving them – and that can’t be done without questioning the
assumptions in those statements, and those assumptions that underlie
the goals.

No one wants an NHS that’s not focused on patients, but without
proper funding, decent levels of staffing, effective management that
doesn’t have a stranglehold on clinical care, that’s not going to
happen. And stating the obvious about what we want is meaningless if
we don’t understand how we’re going to get there. Understanding Maths
and economics might help us crunch the numbers to work out what’s
possible, but it’s not going to tell us anything about what we’re
choosing to value and how.

Sunak’s vision is for one where Maths will be compulsory to 18, as a
means of giving children the analytical skills that the modern
world requires. But analysis is not just crunching numbers – it’s about
nuance and perspective, about value and bias. The ability to question
bias, to examine value, to create new approaches cannot be taught by
expecting children to cite and learn mathematics – especially when
they often dislike or even fear it.

Part of the challenge is the fact that Maths is taught in a linear
rigid fashion. The elegance, beauty and even magic of Maths doesn’t
come into play until further Maths – and while children need to learn
the basics in order to explore the art of mathematics, that’s not
going to necessarily equip them with the skills to question and think about
what they’re doing. Data is everywhere -we need to interpret and to analyse
it,- but Maths isn’t necessarily the best tool for children to use. Mathematics is 
important and can be exciting but forcing children to learn something they
don’t like, for reasons they don’t understand, cannot be the way
forward.

Sunak’s vision harks back to a Victorian approach which is about creating 
a workforce to fulfil the needs of future employers. In a world where the UK 
government is attempting to pass legislation to force striking workers to work,
removing one of the future tools for effecting change for working people, isn’t it 
more important that we teach our children how to think independently, 
critically and compassionately?
0 Comments

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    Archives

    January 2023
    November 2022
    November 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    November 2020
    September 2020
    July 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    January 2020
    October 2019
    September 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    July 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016

    Categories

    All
    Citizenship Foundation
    Cultural Diversity
    Empathy Lab
    Media Partners
    MEND
    NLCS
    P4C
    Philosophy For Children
    Questionnaire
    Rights Respecting Schools
    SAPERE
    The Week Junior
    UNICEF
    Values Based Education
    VbE

    RSS Feed

Proudly powered by Weebly