Dropsafe

by Alec Muffett

BBC News – What happened when MPs took a maths exam

Without comment:

Could it be that Labour leader Ed Miliband’s demand that all school pupils must study maths until they are 18 has been prompted by new evidence that his own MPs struggle with numbers?

The man in charge of the party’s policy review, Jon Cruddas, admitted this weekend that he is “barely numerate”. And when the Royal Statistical Society (RSS) recently tested the ability of honourable members to answer a relatively simple mathematical question, only a quarter of Labour MPs got it right.

A total of 97 MPs were asked this probability problem: if you spin a coin twice, what is the probability of getting two heads?*

continues at BBC News – What happened when MPs took a maths exam.

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Comments

2 responses to “BBC News – What happened when MPs took a maths exam”

  1. Dave Walker

    It’s not often that I quote the Grauniad, but this speaks volumes: http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2012/may/11/kicking-down-doors-scientific-advice-governments

    Reply
  2. Simon

    If they studied maths at school from 4 to 16 and still can’t do simple probability, does anyone believe another 2 years of the same will make much difference?

    I’m presume those that got O level or GCSE maths could do this sort of thing when they left, so likely the problem is they don’t know how to apply it and so never actually used what they were taught.

    The argument thus is to teach it differently, teach more useful stuff, teach the application more, to encourage them to use it more.

    As for democracy – well you can vote for a more numerate representative, but I fear the defeat of the AV referendum means more numerate candidates will realize that standing will lower the chances of the policies they want being enacted.

    Reply

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