Rishi Sunak’s national drive to improve UK maths skills needs to offer extra support to boost the confidence of women and girls, says a leading numeracy charity.
In a report published on Thursday, National Numeracy said lower maths confidence among females had hampered their career prospects as it sought a more tailored approach to the government’s planned extension to mandatory maths education. The charity also called for additional support for young people and the unemployed.
Findings published in the wake of the prime minister’s latest speech, in which he set out his ambitions for reforming maths education, showed that working-aged women were as likely as men to hold a secondary school level maths qualification.
But when surveyed, they expressed lower confidence. On a sliding scale from one to 10, women, on average, rated their confidence at 6.5 versus 8.2 for men.
“We need to address the gender confidence gap, because it could make a real difference,” said Sam Sims, chief executive of National Numeracy. “If we do require every young person to do some form of maths until the age of 18, we’ve got to take specific actions to address these challenges.”
