Oral Answers to Questions

Caroline Dinenage Excerpts

Monday 3rd December 2012 Commons Chamber

[Elizabeth Truss]

We are giving head teachers the power over how they train up teachers and how to ensure that we have the best quality teachers in the classroom.

[Caroline Dinenage (Gosport) (Con)]

5. What steps he is taking to raise standards in mathematics in schools.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Education (Elizabeth Truss)]

We treat maths as a very high priority and are working to attract the best graduates into mathematics teaching through bursaries of up to £20,000. From 2014, we will remove calculators from primary tests to ensure that pupils master the basics, and we are reforming the national curriculum to focus on core arithmetic, which is key to so much future success in employment.

[Caroline Dinenage]

With that in mind, what steps is my hon. Friend taking to ensure that children have a good basic grasp of mental arithmetic before they are able to rely on calculators?

[Elizabeth Truss]

At present, the evidence suggests that 10-year-olds in England are more likely to use calculators than those in virtually any other country in the world, and we are 28th in the world league tables for maths. It is important that children understand and are fluent in multiplication, division, addition and subtraction before they use calculators. That is why we are removing calculators from the primary tests, in line with high-performing countries such as Hong Kong and jurisdictions such as Massachusetts.