Campaign to Bring GCSE Maths Within Reach for All

Aim

The failure to pass GCSE maths creates extreme and disproportionate barriers for school leavers in the UK. Let's fix this problem.

Open Access Mathematics: Guerrilla Education

To be forced to study a subject you have no interest in is a miserable experience at best. To force someone else to learn something they don’t want to learn is delusional. 167,000 students left school this year with no GCSE Maths certificate. The vast majority enrolled at a Further Education college where they are not allowed to opt out of maths classes. This has nothing whatsoever to do with education or the promotion of a more mathematically literate society; this is about money and discrimination.

Guerrilla Education: believes that a genuine mathematical education should be available to all but that coercion is not the way to achieve a greater and more successful uptake of the subject.

Guerrilla Education: believes that State Education has had long enough to get to grips with this issue, but has succeeded only in turning maths exam failure into a profitable business for a few and a depressing inevitability for 1 in 3 school leavers.

Guerrilla Education: opposes the way in which mathematics is being used to discriminate school leavers. Fee-paying students or those who have the benefit of private tuition whilst at school invariable pass the GCSE Maths exam at sixteen. The requirement for holding the GCSE Maths certificate has become a barrier to progression that disproportionately affects the least affluent third of school leavers because they are destined to enter, and remain trapped within, the compulsory exam retake cycle. Not holding a GCSE Maths certificate drastically reduces chances of success with online applications for jobs, apprenticeships, college and university courses. This happens regardless of whether any actual mathematical skill will ever be required.

Guerrilla Education: opposes the UK Government’s immoral policy of forcing college students into maths classes. Students are no longer allowed to have an honest disinterest in mathematics. FE colleges routinely threaten students with being removed from their chosen courses for non-compliance with the compulsory maths schedule. If a student is expelled from full time education, their families stand to lose vital welfare payments. The pressure exerted by the State on students and teachers is therefore pretty intense. Despite this, and the receipt of hundreds of millions of pounds of public funds per year, colleges have spent a decade presiding over a 90% failure rate for the GCSE Maths exam retake. The colleges are funded on the basis of class attendance, not exam results. There is therefore no imperative for the FE sector to change this situation and improve outcomes for their students.

Guerrilla Education: opposes the policy of ignoring the emotional harm being inflicted on students, families and teachers alike by repeatedly experiencing maths exam failure for the sake of the profits being made out of the retake cycle by private companies and colleges, as funded by the UK taxpayer.

Guerrilla Education: has a track record of running highly effective GCSE Maths exam lectures as an alternative to the FE sector’s coercive and ineffective methods. In 2017/18, with university support, these lectures were made freely available to school and college students and were unanimously approved by those who attended.

Guerrilla Education: is now in a position to repeat the GCSE Maths lecture series. Starting in the Southwest, university lecture theatres will be leased to provide the confidence boosting spaces required to guide students away from their fear of failure. The lectures are run by a university lecturer in mathematics and the students are shown in simple, direct terms how to pass the exam.

Guerrilla Education: promotes public awareness of the scale of the present problem. Regular Freedom of Information requests are lodged with the ONS for up-to-date figures relating to maths exam performance and issuance of certificates in the context of socio-economic boundaries.

Guerrilla Education: is not funded by the State Education Business, is not beholden to shareholders, and believes the chance to get over the maths hurdle should be equally available to all regardless of social status. If you support this quest, support us. If you choose to make a donation, you will be supporting a campaign to rid the country of the current debilitating situation that exists for anyone coming through school, college or any alternative route, for whom mathematics is a difficult and unnecessary barrier. Donations can be made in £1 increments, starting with as little as £1 and every one counts. Thank you.

For your information:

Guerrilla: a member of a small independent group opposing a typically larger and officially recognised force.

Education: an enlightening experience.

Trojan: a person who shows pluck, determination and courage.

Spartan: famous in literature for opposing authoritarian rule. Also: adjective, plain, simple, direct.

Ancient Greece: the origin of many mathematical discoveries.

Mathematics: from the ancient Greek mathema which translates roughly as: that which is learned. Whilst mathematics has been of vital importance to the evolution of human civilisation, technology and our understanding of the Cosmos, on a personal level it is only ever of use for individuals who work to develop cutting-edge technologies or research. Human beings are adept at solving the problems faced in everyday life in a heuristic fashion and mostly have no need of the algorithmic, purely logical techniques typified by mathematics. Every day, billions of people across the globe display highly creative, imaginative and innovative problem solving abilities without ever using mathematics. To suggest that only mathematics can engender such skills is an insult to human intelligence. Maths is like music: you have to want to listen to it!

Guerrilla Lecture: coming to a university near you. Contact for details.

Open Access: the principle of unrestricted access to information.

Posts, updates and contact details can be found on my LinkedIn page here:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/algebraist/

Thank you for your support, please re-post the link to this Crowdfunder page wherever you are able to!

This project successfully funded on 24th October 2023