MATHS IN THE PAPERS Maths and Education Jul-Sep 2002

Maths support for engineering students
Education, Engineering

Special entry support courses in maths have been proposed by a recent Roberts Review, to bridge the gap between A-level and university for engineering students. More than 3000 engineering and technology students drop out of their courses in the first year, and this has been attributed in part to problems with application of mathematical knowledge, even from students with good A-level grades. With the number of students opting for engineering and science degrees falling, maths support 'in person and through e-learning' is seen as crucial to the future of high quality engineers and scientists.

TES Teacher 20/9/02

Government suggests Thinking Skills to boost test results
Education

As literacy and numeracy targets prove unattainable, Government ministers are looking for new initiatives. Test results for 11-year-olds are expected next week. The results are expected to show a rise in standards, but a failure to meet government targets set by David Blunkett, which predict 805 of pupils reaching level 4 in English and 75% reaching level 4 in maths. Teachers are unhappy with 'totally unrealistic' targets for 2004 which expect 85% of students to attain level 4 in both English and maths, and headteachers claim that many schools have gone as far as they can. One suggestion is to incorporate teaching Thinking Skills. The government has already funded an international thinking skills conference this summer and the techniques play a large part in the new key stage 3 strategy designed to raise achievement in secondary schools.

TES Archive 20/9/02

Maths lessons focus on African textiles
Education, Teaching resources, Africa

Dympna McGahern, co-ordinator for ethnic minority achievement at Hornsey School for Girls, North London, and maths teacher David Kaplan, have created a series of key stage 3 maths lessons based on African fabrics and pattern making. Hornsey school's students have a strong ethnic mix, with 11% from refugee communities and 16% of African heritage. 60% of students are bilingual. McGahern is keen to challenge ethnocentricity in the national curriculum and to introduce practical teaching that relates to real life situations. The Hornsey project, which stemmed from an exhibition of African art, uses cultural artefacts to create lessons. Worksheets incorporate photocopies of decorative designs ranging from mats to mosaics and these are used in lessons on symmetry, rotational symmetry etc. The lessons gave a high profile to African heritage students and re-inforced cross-curricular links.

TES Teacher 13/09/02

Demand for unskilled workers falls
Business, education

According to the CBI's annual survey of employment trends, one in three firms plans to recruit fewer workers with no qualifications over the next three years. Demand for graduates is growing rapidly, but the future looks grim for Britain's six million unskilled workers. Two thirds of jobs now require qualifications. As a result of this only one in three unskilled workers has a job. Businesses are also unhappy with poor levels of literacy and numeracy and spent nearly £24bn last year making up for school deficiencies.

Guardian 9/9/02

Report on prison education spending
Crime, education

The Commons' public accounts committee has called prison spending on education, sometimes as low as £205 per head a year, 'totally unsatisfactory'. The cross-party committee called for more emphasis on raising standards of literacy and numeracy to give inmates a better chance of finding work on release from prison. The report draws attention to the fact that the prisoners most likely to re-offend are young and serving short sentences, and points out that more resources should be directed at this group. Currently, many prison service education programmes are designed for longer term prisoners. Paul Cavadino, chief executive of the National Association for the Care and Resettlement of Offenders said: " The facts speak for themselves. Research shows that prisoners released with a job are half as likely to reoffend as unemployed ex-prisoners. " Prisoners who are released into stable accommodation reduces the likelihood of them reoffending by one fifth, while prisoners who have had education in literacy and numeracy reoffend at one third the rate of those who have not.

Guardian 5/09/02

Science graduates - numbers declining
Education

Numbers of science graduates have been falling steadily, according to recent research. Between 1996 and 2000 entrants to chemistry degrees decreased by 20%, civil engineers by 23%, physicists by 10% and mechanical engineers by 12%. Last year saw the highest ever take-up of places on full-time undergraduate courses, but entrants to mechanical engineering decreased by a further 5% and chemistry by 7%. However, some areas of science are growing steadily more popular. Computer science entries increased last year by 12.5%, and sports science showed a definite upward trend, accounting for some of the highest rises across all subjects.

The Independent 21/8/02

Deaf student refused place at Oxford
Education

A deaf student who gained six A passes at A-level from a comprehensive school, has failed to win a place at Brasenose College, Oxford, following an interview there with tutors. Anastasia Fedotova, from Manchester, is profoundly deaf and was unable to talk until she was seven. Her A-levels were in maths, further maths, physics, chemistry, biology and general studies. Once again, Oxford University's admissions policy is under scrutiny as being elitist. In 2000, Magdalen College rejected Laura Spence, from a Tyneside comprehensive, who later won a place at Harvard. Disability groups have reminded the university of new laws outlawing discrimination in the admissions process.

The Independent 20/8/02

Prince's Trust to fund basic skills
Education

The Prince's Trust is spending £5m on courses for teenagers who lack basic skills. Thirty thousand young people will leave school with no qualifications at all following this years GCSE results. The Trust warns that these teenagers face long-term unemployment, and that the gap between those who achieve at school and those who don't has widened over recent years. 'This substantial minority of young people face significant difficulties in their lives and the negative impact they have on their communities is growing,' the Trust's report states. The charity, set up by Prince Charles, is also to contribute money towards setting up a network of clubs in schools to target those at risk of under-achievement. One in ten young people, around 60,000, fail to pass maths GCSE, leaving them with a numeracy level of an 11-year-old, and one in eleven fail to pass English GCSE.

The Independent 20/8/02

Degrees Boost Quality Of Life
Education

Graduates are twice as likely to be promoted at work, twice as likely to go on holiday abroad, and they own homes that are 50% more expensive than their non-graduate peers, according to research commissioned by the Department for Education and Skills (DfES) and a separate study by the Institute of Education (IoE) on the benefits of higher education.

The studies found:

The average value of homes owned by graduates is £153,000 compared to £101,000 for non-graduates. Graduates can also afford more rent at £423 a month compared to £256 for non-graduates.

Higher education enhances labour market prospects, not only through earnings, but 'guaranteed access to the best jobs'.

Graduates had double the average number of promotions at work than non-graduates over the last five years. And only 36% of graduates had not been promoted at all, compared to 57% of non-graduates.

Graduates are twice as likely to go on holiday abroad. Significantly, almost half of non-graduates did not take holidays abroad compared to just one-fifth of graduates.

Graduates were 16% less likely to smoke.

Graduates were more likely to have voted in the last election, and more likely to be involved with their local communities and voluntary groups

www.prospects.ac.uk. August 2002

Maths classes too big
Education

Hiroshi Kumon, chairman of the Japanese Kumon Institute of Education, has said that teachers cannot deliver effective maths education in classes of 30 pupils. The Kumon Institute is an internationally renowned centre for maths teaching, with 500 out-of-hours clubs for over 400,000 children in the UK.

The Independent 13/8/02

Number of potential teachers rises
Education

More people want to be teachers, according to recent statistics issued by the Graduate Teacher Training Registry. The number of applications has risen by 4000 this year, with the biggest rises seen in subjects with a traditional shortage, such as maths and physics. This suggests that the Government's cash incentives have encouraged more graduates to consider teaching as a career.

The Independent 8/8/02

Business want more vocational training
Finance, Education
UK Business leaders, in areport published by the Institute of Directors, are urging the Government to drop plans to get 50% of young people into higher education by the end of the decade. There is already a shortage of skilled crafts people and those with intermediate engineering and communications skills. This situation will worsenif more young people move into higher education rather than vocational training.

				Independent 22/7/02

Subjects squeezed for Maths and English
Teaching
The Qualifications and Curriculum Authority has told primary schools that while English and Maths should be taught daily, other subjects, such as history and geography need only be taught every other term, not every week.

This latest guidance is likely to increase concern that, in order to accommodate literacy and numeracy strategies, other subjects such as art, music and even science are being squeezed out of the curriculum.

				Ananova 17/7/02

Teachers and Property
Teaching, Finance
According to the Halifax, Britain's largest mortgage lender, teachers would need a pay rise of up to £18,750 a year to enable them to buy a house in London or the South East. With house prices having risen at more than twice the rate of teachers' pay in the last five years, many are unable to get a foot on the property ladder.

				Independent 15/7/02

Ofsted Inspection harms education
Teaching
Ofsted inspections may harm children's education, according to a new report from a study conducted by Cambridge University. Professor Maurice Galton and Professor John Macbeath conducted the study, which shows that external inspection was seen as having the most negative impact on teachers' working conditions and 'pupil opportunity'. However, teachers believed that the introduction of the maths hour and the national curriculum in the 1900s was a beneficial reform.

				Ananova 7/7/02

Incentive for teaching maths
Teaching
In a plan to fill spaces, potential teaching recruits may be offered an incentive to enter teacher training. People with a maths background may benefit from up to £3600 to increase their subject knowledge prior to teacher training. This will enable those who are planning career changes to view teaching as a potential option. This comes with news that fewer men are training as teachers and numbers of maths and science graduates joining the profession have dropped.

				TES archive 5/7/02

Teacher training figures up
Teaching, Percentages
There has been an increase in the number of people applying for teacher training. The figure for England was up more than 10% in June compared with last year's figures. Applications to teach foreign languages,however, have dropped, possibly due to government plans to scrap French and German as compulsory subjects for 11-14 year-olds. Although there is a 17% risein applications to teach maths, one expert has said that this will still fallshort of government targets for maths teachers.

				Ananova 3/7/02