Real-world maths launched to boost financial literacy

The Eduction Endowment Foundation (EEF) has claimed that teaching ‘real-world maths’ could help GCSE students gain a better grade in their maths exam.

The education charity has launched the Maths in Context programme which will test whether setting students questions which involve estimating household bills or calculating interest on bank balances will improve thier grades.

Example questions include ‘real-life’ problems such as working out the original price of an item on sale or calculating how much a sales assistant will earn on commission when making a sale.

Currently, such questions make up around a quarter of the questions in maths GCSE exams, but according to the EEF, most students perform badly in them achieving E and F grades.

The trial is one of six supported by the EFF and will be run by the Young Enterprise education and employment charity. The programme will involve nearly 10,000 pupils at 130 schools across England.

Sir Kevan Collins, chief executive of EFF, said: “Most of us would agree that developing a good level of financial literacy is important to success later in life.But many young people are struggling to translate the skills they learn in maths lessons into real-life contexts. Our evaluation of Maths in Context will help give teachers and schools a clearer picture of the best ways to equip young people with the practical maths skills they need to succeed.”