Are we entering an unknowable future?

Neither of the UK’s main political parties is saying anything especially interesting about education. In an economy chronically short of skills – more than ten million people lack the skills they need to do their jobs effectively – that’s odd. The education cupboard is not entirely bare. Last week saw the latest instalment of the Prime Minister’s programme to support maths education to age 18. And a big number – more than £500 million – is being bunged at the UK’s numeracy problem through the government’s Multiply programme. This maths initiative has had its critics but, as vice-chair of the charity National Numeracy, I am not one of them. We are an innumerate nation: in the case of roughly eight million of us, our maths is no better than that of a primary-school child. Number anxiety starts in early years and typically lasts a lifetime. But we are also kidding ourselves if we think educational redemption lies in Stem (science, technology, engineering and maths) subjects alone.