‘Maths anxiety’ rates

SIR – In your report (March 14) on the findings of the recent Nuffield report on “maths anxiety”, you appear to suggest that the fact that only 22 per cent of adults have functional maths skills might be related to the fact that around 10 per cent of eight- to 13-year-olds suffer from such anxiety.

Two major 2018 surveys by the Maths Anxiety Trust suggest that maths anxiety is more prevalent than this, especially among older teenagers.

In an Ipsos MORI poll of 2019, 36 per cent of 15- to 24-year-olds said they had felt anxious about maths, while 23 per cent of parents of children aged between five and 15 reported that their eldest child often felt anxious when attempting to solve maths problems. In a survey of 2,055 11- to 18-year-olds in high-performing schools, 25 per cent felt anxious about maths most of the time, and more than 40 per cent some of the time. Anxiety peaked around the time of GCSE exams.

This strengthens the conclusions of the report that action needs to be taken to ensure that maths teaching instils more positive attitudes. Professor Margaret Brown Shirley Conran

The Maths Anxiety Trust London SW15

SIR – I suffered from severe maths anxiety when at school. My maths teacher was terrifying and my father was an actuary. The best mathematicians do not necessarily make the best teachers. They tend to start at infinity and work upwards. Fiona Wild

Cheltenham, Gloucestershire