The maths we need now : demands, deficits and remedies

Higher level mathematical qualifications are in demand across industry and commerce.

Yet, in the United Kingdom, the amount of mathematics studied by 15- and 16-year-olds has actually fallen.

The majority of students achieve less than GCSE grade C in mathematics by the age of 16 and then abandon the subject.

A cycle of deficiency in mathematics education is perpetuated as insufficient numbers study it at degree level and a decreasing proportion of those qualified want to teach.

The authors are distinguished researchers in mathematics education, the economics of education, and longitudinal studies.

They bring together new evidence on the importance of mathematics in the labour market, the growing disparity between school mathematics and the demands of higher education, and the disjunction between the British mathematics curriculum and those of all our major competitors.

They also argue eloquently for the importance of mathematics as the focus of policy-makers' attention, and explain what this means for effective teaching and learning.