Tens of thousands of students a year in England are being left with little or no maths education after the age of 16, a report has warned.
The take-up of core maths – which offers an opportunity for students not studying A-level maths to study an alternative maths course – is low, according to an analysis by the Royal Society.
Fewer than a third of state schools and colleges offer core maths, while nearly 10% of local education authorities in England have no schools or colleges with core maths entries, it found.
Only around 7% of A-level students not taking A-level maths are taking the alternative core maths qualification – which was introduced nearly a decade ago, according to the analysis of data from the 2021/22 academic year.
This leaves around 150,000 A-level students a year with little or no post-16 maths education, the Royal Society has said.
It comes after the Prime Minister announced that all pupils in England will study some form of mathematics until the age of 18 under reforms to introduce “the Advanced British Standard”.
The Royal Society is calling for a “comprehensive plan” to support the greater take up of core maths.
In the 2021/22 academic year, only 11,683 students across 740 schools and colleges sat the core maths exam – an estimated 7% of the potential numbers, according to the analysis.
