We Need More than a New Post-16 Maths Resits Policy

Last week brought a welcome signal that the government is ready to rethink GCSE maths resits. Education Secretary Lucy Powell acknowledged that failing to get a grade 4 can create a “blockage” to work, apprenticeships and further study, while plans for a new Level 1 stepping-stone qualification offer a different route forward.

National Numeracy has been calling for a stepping-stone qualification for over a decade – albeit for all young people and earlier in the education journey. Importantly, this isn’t about lowering standards. It’s about being more ambitious, not less. We want to ensure that young people leave education with the number skills they need to navigate life, from managing a budget to understanding their payslip.

Low numeracy limits opportunities, undermines self-confidence and leaves people struggling with decisions that affect their money, work, health and future.

The case for change

This summer, 178,270 students in England did not achieve the gateway grade 4 in GCSE maths.

At the same time, post-16 maths GCSE entries rose by 5.8% this year, while the rate of those achieving a grade 4 or higher fell by 1.7 percentage points.

With such a significant proportion of young people struggling year-on-year, it is plain that the system is broken. Resits don’t guarantee progress, but they do entrench negative experiences and attitudes.

This year, just 13.6% of young people aged 17 to 19 resitting their maths GCSE achieved a grade 4 or above.

Young people need another route to success

Teachers know better than anyone that these young people do not lack potential. Many students arrive in college without the fundamental maths building blocks needed to progress towards a GCSE grade 4, compounded by dented confidence. Educators work tirelessly to rebuild maths skills and confidence, but they need a system that offers alternative routes to success.

We should not give up on a young person because they have not reached the benchmark grade 4 by age 16. And at all costs we must not inadvertently create a two-tier system that further disadvantages those from under-resourced backgrounds.

For students who think they are “bad at maths”, who have struggled in lessons, felt anxious about the subject and then received a GCSE result that seems to confirm their worst fears…asking them to do it over and over again is our failure, not theirs.

Let’s stop asking them to repeat what hasn’t worked and give them a different route to these essential life skills.

The consequences can last a lifetime

New research from UCL ups the ante. In a comparison between young people in England with those in Wales and Northern Ireland, the UCL team found significantly lower wellbeing among students affected by England’s compulsory resit system. They warn that repeated resits may lead to further disengagement from education.

This evidence that resits can have a deeply negative effect lasting far beyond school resonated with what we hear from the adults our charity works with.

Thousands of our beneficiaries have spent years – even lifetimes – avoiding numbers because of their experiences at school. I have heard someone in their 60s describe in vivid detail how sick they felt sitting in a maths lesson more than 50 years ago. Feelings of anxiety and shame around maths are widespread and have lifelong consequences.

Why wait until 16?

Introducing a new Level 1 stepping-stone qualification is a positive step, but why wait until learners have already experienced failure at 16? It is the right solution, offered at the wrong age.

National Numeracy has long argued for a criterion-referenced stepping-stone qualification from age 14, not 16. This would help all young people build the foundations they need for life and to further progress. Waiting for them to fail first doesn’t make sense.

Learners should be allowed to build the essentials, show what they can do and experience success before progressing. The Level 1 qualification should connect maths to the world beyond the classroom and help young people understand why numbers matter in their lives.

We also need more flexibility over when young people resit GCSE maths. Readiness should matter more than the calendar. The Level 1 qualification would give young people the basic maths skills they need for everyday life and the foundations to progress to a grade 4 at GCSE. That is very different from getting a Level 1 grade at GCSE, which does not necessarily show that a young person has mastered those essential skills.

Skills and confidence must go together

Most importantly, building number confidence must be part of the answer.

There are now more than one million 16 to 24-year-olds not in education, employment or training. The reasons are complex and cannot be blamed on one maths exam. But a teenage college-leaver who believes “maths isn’t for me” often becomes an adult who rules themselves out of a better-paid job, struggles with their household finances, or passes maths anxiety on to their children. And the maths doom-loop continues.

Every young person deserves strong numeracy skills, the chance to improve and a system that does not repeatedly punish them. There is a chance to make a real difference now. I hope the government looks at the evidence and takes bold action to alter this nation’s relationship with numeracy for the better.

By Sam Sims, Chief Executive of National Numeracy