For Britain's pupils, maths is even more pointless than Latin | Simon Jenkins

Our ministers remain gripped by the cult of maths. But China's classrooms don't hold the key to the future of the British economyThere are lies, damned lies and statistics, but worse still are maths statistics. They send people mad. Elizabeth Truss, the education minister, sets off next week to see why Chinese pupils are so good at maths: indeed, why even working-class Chinese pupils are better than middle-class British ones. She and her boss, Michael Gove, believe the future of the British economy rests on her findings.Truss's trip, with loyal headteachers in tow, makes The Hunting of the Snark look like sanity. David Cameron and his colleagues are infatuated with anything to do with China. Now it is education. It so happens that in 2010 researchers from the London Institute of Education reported that Chinese school performance had nothing to do with China. Even in Britain, "Chinese pupils from families in routine and manual jobs perform better than white pupils from managerial and professional backgrounds."It is maths that has the mesmeric appeal. To Gove and Truss it is virtually a state religion. Captains of industry, titans of science, politicians of all parties, they all take up the cry, declaring maths to hold the secret of the universe. Stuff the little blighters full of maths, they demand, and Britain will again rule the world. Square the hypotenuse, and Johnny Taliban will beg for mercy.The appeal of school maths to control-minded politicians is obvious: it is easy ...
Source: Guardian Unlimited Science - Category: Science Authors: Tags: Comment The Guardian Asia Pacific World news Mathematics Education policy China Politics UK news Science Comment is free Source Type: news