Count us in: our need for quantitative skills has never been greater

A report from the British Academy throws our lack of numeracy skills into sharp relief

In June this year The British Academy (BA) published a report titled Count us in: Quantitative skills for a new generation. The report calls on the Government to face up to the problem of young people dropping maths too early. Currently, only about 20% of students stick with maths after the age of 16. This is one of the lowest rates in developed nations: in Japan, Korea, Finland, Germany and New Zealand for example, close to 100% of students take maths up to age 18.

The report, described as "a vision of how the UK can rise to the potentially transformational challenge of becoming a data-literate nation" also pressed for improvements in the quality of quantitative skills teaching in schools and colleges. What surprises me is that the report wasn't issued by any of the usual suspects - the Royal Society perhaps, or the Royal Academy of Engineering. No, the BA is the National Academy for the Arts and Social Sciences.