A survey of 3000 pupils aged from seven to 18 for City & Guilds
is reported by the BBC to have found that “maths lessons are
seen as difficult, irrelevant and boring by about a third of
teenagers” and that the subject could be “geared more towards
real life”, but that “most agreed that maths would be useful
once they had left school”. The more detailed findings reported
in the BBC article are that 69% of young people believed that as
a subject, maths could help them become successful. Among seven-
to 11-year-olds, 85% agreed that maths would be useful once they
left school – but a substantial minority of 16- to 18-year-olds
said they found the subject boring (39%), difficult (36%) or
irrelevant (30%). Teenagers had clear ideas for how maths
teaching could be improved, with 54% saying it should be geared
more to practical scenarios. Chris Jones of City & Guilds is
quoted saying: “Our research shows young people are keen to
learn maths and recognise the importance of the subject, but
there needs to be more emph