Matt N
CF Legend
Hi guys. Currently in the UK, Maths and English are only compulsory up to GCSE level, so students only have to study them up to age 16.
However, that could change if Rishi Sunak wins the Tory leadership race and becomes Prime Minister of the UK. As part of his 3-point plan to transform education, he is proposing a new British Baccalaureate, which would force students to study Maths and English to A Level, so up to age 18: https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/teens-should-study-maths-english-27678933
Sunak’s argument for this is that in most other Western countries and advanced economies, students are forced to study Maths and English up to age 18, and he feels that it will “hold us back” if students do not have the Maths and English skills gained by studying those subjects to A Level.
But I’d be keen to know; do you agree with Rishi Sunak’s thinking? Do you think that Maths and English should be compulsory past GCSE level?
Personally, my answer is no. I do not agree with Maths and English being made compulsory at A Level.
My reasoning for this is that not everyone likes these subjects, and to put it bluntly, I think forcing everyone to study them to A Level would prevent a significant proportion of students from fully utilising their potential and channeling it into the path they want to take.
Not everyone enjoys Maths and English, not everyone flourishes at Maths and English, and not everyone wants to pursue paths related to these subjects. I myself studied A Level Maths, and from my own experience, I would not advise it unless you are very talented at Maths and/or want to pursue a career in STEM.
If you don’t mind a little story, let me tell you about my experience.
For some idea, I did reasonably well at Maths throughout lower secondary school; I was always in the top set from Year 7 right through to Year 11, I got a 7 (A) in GCSE Maths and somehow managed a B in GCSE Further Maths despite struggling with the material a fair amount. With this in mind, I thought “yeah, I’m pretty good at Maths; why not give the A Level a go? And why not do Further Maths as well? The challenge sounds fun!”. Suffice to say, I either massively overestimated my mathematical ability, massively underestimated the difficulty of mathematical subjects at A Level, or most likely a combination of both.
I only managed 4 months doing A Level Further Maths before dropping it; I did 2 exams in that 4 months and got Us in both of them despite doing a fair amount of revision, and I spent every lesson staring at the whiteboard, dumbfounded, thinking “what on Earth just happened?”. No matter how hard I tried to understand it, it just didn’t sink in at all.
A Level Maths started off OK; during AS, it was all right. I struggled with Year 12 Maths a bit more than GCSE Maths, but it was OK; I felt like I had somewhat of a grasp on the subject. But Year 13 was a whole different story; the difficulty ramped up quite significantly at A2 level compared to AS level, and many lessons were giving me horrible flashbacks to my brief foray into AS Further. Once again, I often found myself staring at the whiteboard, dumbfounded, thinking “what on Earth just happened?” A fair few of my mock exam results during Year 13 were Ds and Es in spite of me doing a fair bit of revision, and even when I properly put my all into revising the subject and trying to understand it before the end of my A Levels, I only just scraped a C at the end.
I apologise if you didn’t want to hear that whole story, as I appreciate that that whole extract probably sounds a bit self-centred (sorry…), but my point is; if someone like me who did fairly OK at Maths at GCSE found the A Level a tough uphill struggle and hit some real low points while studying it, I can imagine it being an incredibly demoralising experience, and incredibly gruelling, for someone who struggled with Maths in lower school. Also, I’m not really sure that A Level Maths would have a lot of relevance for most unless you’re pursuing a career in STEM. Will someone going down a vocational path, such as health & social care, really need to know material such as all the differentiation and integration rules, and exponentials and logarithms, and numerical methods, and sequences and series? Probably not.
As for A Level English; I had one taster lesson of A Level English in Year 11 and I really didn’t understand it at all… I can certainly imagine I would have struggled with the A Level, and I can’t imagine it would have been at all relevant to my aspired career path.
But in conclusion, I do not personally agree with students being forced to do English & Maths past GCSE level. I think many students don’t flourish best when doing these subjects, and many don’t really need to know the A Level material unless they go into a career path that heavily leans upon the subject.
But what’s your opinion? Do you agree with me, or do you think Maths & English should be mandatory up to age 18?
However, that could change if Rishi Sunak wins the Tory leadership race and becomes Prime Minister of the UK. As part of his 3-point plan to transform education, he is proposing a new British Baccalaureate, which would force students to study Maths and English to A Level, so up to age 18: https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/teens-should-study-maths-english-27678933
Sunak’s argument for this is that in most other Western countries and advanced economies, students are forced to study Maths and English up to age 18, and he feels that it will “hold us back” if students do not have the Maths and English skills gained by studying those subjects to A Level.
But I’d be keen to know; do you agree with Rishi Sunak’s thinking? Do you think that Maths and English should be compulsory past GCSE level?
Personally, my answer is no. I do not agree with Maths and English being made compulsory at A Level.
My reasoning for this is that not everyone likes these subjects, and to put it bluntly, I think forcing everyone to study them to A Level would prevent a significant proportion of students from fully utilising their potential and channeling it into the path they want to take.
Not everyone enjoys Maths and English, not everyone flourishes at Maths and English, and not everyone wants to pursue paths related to these subjects. I myself studied A Level Maths, and from my own experience, I would not advise it unless you are very talented at Maths and/or want to pursue a career in STEM.
If you don’t mind a little story, let me tell you about my experience.
For some idea, I did reasonably well at Maths throughout lower secondary school; I was always in the top set from Year 7 right through to Year 11, I got a 7 (A) in GCSE Maths and somehow managed a B in GCSE Further Maths despite struggling with the material a fair amount. With this in mind, I thought “yeah, I’m pretty good at Maths; why not give the A Level a go? And why not do Further Maths as well? The challenge sounds fun!”. Suffice to say, I either massively overestimated my mathematical ability, massively underestimated the difficulty of mathematical subjects at A Level, or most likely a combination of both.
I only managed 4 months doing A Level Further Maths before dropping it; I did 2 exams in that 4 months and got Us in both of them despite doing a fair amount of revision, and I spent every lesson staring at the whiteboard, dumbfounded, thinking “what on Earth just happened?”. No matter how hard I tried to understand it, it just didn’t sink in at all.
A Level Maths started off OK; during AS, it was all right. I struggled with Year 12 Maths a bit more than GCSE Maths, but it was OK; I felt like I had somewhat of a grasp on the subject. But Year 13 was a whole different story; the difficulty ramped up quite significantly at A2 level compared to AS level, and many lessons were giving me horrible flashbacks to my brief foray into AS Further. Once again, I often found myself staring at the whiteboard, dumbfounded, thinking “what on Earth just happened?” A fair few of my mock exam results during Year 13 were Ds and Es in spite of me doing a fair bit of revision, and even when I properly put my all into revising the subject and trying to understand it before the end of my A Levels, I only just scraped a C at the end.
I apologise if you didn’t want to hear that whole story, as I appreciate that that whole extract probably sounds a bit self-centred (sorry…), but my point is; if someone like me who did fairly OK at Maths at GCSE found the A Level a tough uphill struggle and hit some real low points while studying it, I can imagine it being an incredibly demoralising experience, and incredibly gruelling, for someone who struggled with Maths in lower school. Also, I’m not really sure that A Level Maths would have a lot of relevance for most unless you’re pursuing a career in STEM. Will someone going down a vocational path, such as health & social care, really need to know material such as all the differentiation and integration rules, and exponentials and logarithms, and numerical methods, and sequences and series? Probably not.
As for A Level English; I had one taster lesson of A Level English in Year 11 and I really didn’t understand it at all… I can certainly imagine I would have struggled with the A Level, and I can’t imagine it would have been at all relevant to my aspired career path.
But in conclusion, I do not personally agree with students being forced to do English & Maths past GCSE level. I think many students don’t flourish best when doing these subjects, and many don’t really need to know the A Level material unless they go into a career path that heavily leans upon the subject.
But what’s your opinion? Do you agree with me, or do you think Maths & English should be mandatory up to age 18?
