We need to raise the bar on maths, David Cameron tells the Post

Feb 4 2009 Agenda by David Cameron, leader of the Conservative Party

In a Birmingham Post exclusive Conservative leader David Cameron outlines his vision for maths education.

I want Britain to have the best schools in the world. I want more schools where every child can make friends, feel safe, and be stretched and inspired.

With that aim in mind we, the Conservatives, have outlined exciting plans to give schools more freedom to drive up standards for their own students and help others. We’ve also explained how we can ensure many more brilliant new state schools are created by organisations that have a passion for giving every child the best in life.

We envisage academy status – with all the freedoms it brings to generate success – will become the norm for state schools. These big structural changes are crucial if we’re to have the sort of revolutionary change I think is necessary to make our schools the best in the world. But these changes are very far from being the limit of our plans.

From day one, a Conservative government will launch the most far-reaching, thorough and zealous commitment to improving standards in all our schools. That means a commitment to discipline. So when a head teacher says a disruptive pupil has got to go, we’ll make sure they’ll go. That means a commitment to rigour. So when some exam board wants to dumb down and passes are handed out for substandard work, we’ll say ‘no’.

That also means a commitment to the right methods.

So when the educational establishment tries to drive through more changes like getting rid of proper subject teaching, then we will stop them in their tracks and ensure parents get what they want.

That way, we can get the basics in place from the start so that our children develop a life-long passion for learning.

When it comes to what those disciplines are, and how they are taught, I believe there are few things more important than getting maths in our schools right. Maths is an important subject at school because it stretches and challenges a child’s mind, giving them analytical skills that will stay with them for life. Not only that, but maths is so often the grounding for other subjects like economics, physics and chemistry.

From checking your bank balance, to doing the weekly shop, the ability to add, subtract, times and divide is not a nice-to-have – it’s a must-have.

Yet nearly half of all 11-year-olds are leaving primary school without basic numeracy skills.

Almost three-quarters of pupils in Birmingham do not make the expected progress in maths between the ages of 14 and 16. This is higher than at any time since records began. Under Labour, three-and-a-half million pupils left schools without at least a ‘C’ in maths GSCE. It is the poorest who are being failed the most – children eligible for free school meals are thirteen times more likely to get below a C in maths GCSE than to get a top grade.

That’s why this week I launched a new Maths Taskforce, headed by Carol Vorderman. Carol has helped millions of pupils improve in maths, and has also