Will studying maths until the age of 18 really help youngsters get a job?
I DISAGREE that extra maths tuition would not be useful for bricklayers, tradesmen, HGV drivers, hairdressers, nurses and care home workers (Letters). Bricklayers and tradesmen use maths to calculate quantities of materials; HGV drivers should be able to work out if their loads are overweight; hairdressers need to know volumes and timings when dyeing hair; and nurses and care home workers have to be able to recognise if a decimal point is in the wrong place when dishing out medicines. For the rest of us, working out if a pack of 24 toilet rolls is better value than a ‘bargain’ pack of nine uses basic algebra.
Darts players need mental arithmetic, snooker players use trigonometry and gamblers calculate probabilities. As for interest rates, mortgages, pensions and budgeting, every school leaver should be taught what is involved in the decisions they will have to face as adults. Perhaps maths would be more interesting to
youngsters if it was made relatable to real-life situations.
HILARY PARROTT, Bournemouth, Dorset. MATHS comes in useful in most trades. When looking at a recipe, I heard a trainee say: ‘I would never have come into catering if I thought I’d have to do maths.’
DAVID ROTHWELL, Llanrhos, Conwy. THE issue is not teaching maths to 18-year-olds, but the failure to teach basic arithmetic to seven-year-olds. I am shocked that so many teenagers can’t cope with multiplication.
JACK BUTTERWORTH, Oldham, Gtr Manchester. I NEVER found any use for maths beyond that which I learned at primary school. Fortunately, quadratic equations were not required for my office career.
DAVID HAMM, Plymouth, Devon. WHEN I left school at 15, I was competent in maths, unlike young shop assistants who need a calculator to work out a 20 per cent discount.
R. C. BURMAN, address supplied. INSTEAD of scoffing at Rishi Sunak’s determination to make us mathematically literate, we should recognise that without an understanding of trigonometry and vectors, we can’t understand how the National Grid is harmonised with our ever-changing demands for electrical power.
BRIAN CHRISTLEY, Abergele, Conwy.
I HAVE a research fellowship in biochemistry, but I’m hopeless at maths. As a child I was humiliated in maths lessons so I was delighted that I could give it up after O-levels. It’s unfair that being unable to do maths is equated with stupidity.
J. C. EDWARDS, Goostrey, Cheshire. THERE is an obsession with extending schooling and infantilising teenagers. Spending years talking and theorising is ruining the productivity of this country. In any workplace you are constantly learning skills and interacting with others from all walks of life. Endlessly studying achieves nothing, while a first job helps school-leavers to become useful, happy and successful.