Lettuce Liz then Tetchy Rish! and the battle to replace him

[Tredman]

Even the Times journalists seem to be fed up of their lying

https://twitter.com/x/status/1610347368565673984

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

Rishi Sunak to propose maths for all pupils up to age 18

PM to set out plan to enhance numeracy for pupils in England in first policy speech of 2023

www.theguardian.com

This doesn't work, dickhead. For a number of reasons.

1) A C+ GCSE pass will give you a decent level of numeracy, and that is what you are after. If you must target the teaching and exams more down that road (rather than say, a lot of trigonometry, which I know we did and I basically haven't used in the intervening 25 years) then do so

2) People have a natural plateau with maths, I'm not *that* thick and glancing at mates' A-Level stuff in the late 90s...I wouldn't have had a clue. Miles over my head. I'm just not geared to understand that kind of stuff, let alone make it have a purpose in the real world

3) What if a 16-17 year old doesn't want to do maths any more, how are you going to make them try. They're stubborn buggers, you know

4) So you chuck this pointless extra two years in there - anyone who wants to do Maths can and does - equals less time to dedicate to subjects you actually are good at and want to do

5) For a decade now we have not had as many Maths teachers as targeted, and the numbers aren't getting better, to put it lightly, so who's in charge of the massively expanded classes

 

[Wilf Wolf]

Rishi Sunak to propose maths for all pupils up to age 18

PM to set out plan to enhance numeracy for pupils in England in first policy speech of 2023

www.theguardian.com

This doesn't work, dickhead. For a number of reasons.

1) A C+ GCSE pass will give you a decent level of numeracy, and that is what you are after. If you must target the teaching and exams more down that road (rather than say, a lot of trigonometry, which I know we did and I basically haven't used in the intervening 25 years) then do so

2) People have a natural plateau with maths, I'm not *that* thick and glancing at mates' A-Level stuff in the late 90s...I wouldn't have had a clue. Miles over my head. I'm just not geared to understand that kind of stuff, let alone make it have a purpose in the real world

3) What if a 16-17 year old doesn't want to do maths any more, how are you going to make them try. They're stubborn buggers, you know

4) So you chuck this pointless extra two years in there - anyone who wants to do Maths can and does - equals less time to dedicate to subjects you actually are good at and want to do

5) For a decade now we have not had as many Maths teachers as targeted, and the numbers aren't getting better, to put it lightly, so who's in charge of the massively expanded classes

All good points. My sister took four attempts to pass her maths O level after three Ds. The prospect of having to do more maths would almost certainly have lead her to drop out of 6th form She’s just retired after a career as an Occupational Therapist and not once has she needed more maths education. By all means encourage people to study maths but heed the fact you can lead a horse to water but you can’t make it drink. Even voicing the idea shows how out of touch Rishi is with the real world.

 

[Tredman]

Says in the paper he’s not planning to bring it until 2029. More chance of me being prime
minister then than him.

 

[Mel Evo]

It’s also way too late for Liz and Kwasi anyway.

 

[Johnny75]

Says in the paper he’s not planning to bring it until 2029. More chance of me being prime
minister then than him.

That was the bit I found laughable.

Of all the things to talk about in the world he chooses something that isn't going to happen.

 

[BillyDee]

I didn't do Maths at A level. Went on to do a Biology degree. Because I didn't have a Maths A level, I had to do a unit of further Maths. Which I didn't use once in passing my degree...

 

[Langers]

My wife is a maths teacher at a secondary school. This is such a ridiculously unworkable idea - and yet again shows how totally out of touch with reality these wankers really are. It will increase the strain on teachers (who are already up against it due to a severe lack of funding - can't quite figure out who is responsible for this....) and will also create totally unnecessary extra stress for students, a lot of whom struggle to reach pass grades at GCSE anyway.

I wonder if they ever actually consider speaking to or gauging the opinion of those actually involved in teaching, rather than spewing out such uneducated bullshit to try and get people onside?

Rhetorical question, I know.

I really fucking hate this government.

 

[Mel Evo]

My wife is a maths teacher at a secondary school. This is such a ridiculously unworkable idea - and yet again shows how totally out of touch with reality these wankers really are. It will increase the strain on teachers (who are already up against it due to a severe lack of funding - can't quite figure out who is responsible for this....) and will also create totally unnecessary extra stress for students, a lot of whom struggle to reach pass grades at GCSE anyway.

I wonder if they ever actually consider speaking to or gauging the opinion of those actually involved in teaching, rather than spewing out such uneducated bullshit to try and get people onside?

Rhetorical question, I know.

I really fucking hate this government.

The contempt the Tories have for teachers is disgusting. I don’t think Sunak is a particularly ‘nasty’ guy, it’s just unthinking disregard they have for these and many other professions and it’s lamentable.

Most people in Finance think they can tell everyone else how to do their jobs better. It’s peculiar. It’s the fundamental principle of Private Equity culture, it’s literally how their operations work. Just because some wanker has become a chartered accountant he (almost always ‘he’) has been told he can restructure a school / charity / transport network /insert anything else here. Weird. I don’t think people who have been trained in things just as complicated (I don’t know, like plumbing or acupuncture) are told to go forth into the world and start running completely different businesses they have only a loose idea about.

 

[Langers]

I don’t think Sunak is a particularly ‘nasty’ guy, it’s just unthinking disregard they have for these and many other professions and it’s lamentable.

There's definitely a mixture of both IMO - he wouldn't be in the position he's in within that horrendous party if he wasn't a total cunt. Speaks volumes that he's not the worst of them mind you.

Agree with the 2nd paragraph entirely. It'd be like me going into the cricket thread and telling everyone that they're all wrong and this is how you play the game.

(I know as much about cricket as I do about crochet and find it about as interesting)

 

[Johnny75]

Most people in Finance think they can tell everyone else how to do their jobs better. It’s peculiar. It’s the fundamental principle of Private Equity culture, it’s literally how their operations work. Just because some wanker has become a chartered accountant he (almost always ‘he’) has been told he can restructure a school / charity / transport network /insert anything else here. Weird. I don’t think people who have been trained in things just as complicated (I don’t know, like plumbing or acupuncture) are told to go forth into the world and start running completely different businesses they have only a loose idea about.

I've never understood this. I've sadly met plenty of these types and to a man (and you're right they're all men) they are absolute cunts.

Because they have a handle on numbers they think they're business gurus and carve out a career at PWC or some other asylum of wankers.

These pricks borrow your watch to tell you the time and charge you for it and we have far too many of them advising and in government institutions. I'd fire the lot.

 

[Wilf Wolf]

I didn't do Maths at A level. Went on to do a Biology degree. Because I didn't have a Maths A level, I had to do a unit of further Maths. Which I didn't use once in passing my degree...

Much the same here. Found O level maths really easy, started A level and had a different teacher who was the maths world equivalent of Lage so did a Coady! Did some maths in first year of my biology degree and never used it.

 

[Paddingtonwolf]

I stopped maths at o level as I struggled with quadratic equations. Didn’t stop me getting a law degree and working in house for some pretty big institutions.

Must agree with the PwC types. The arseholes sent out to do audit on my area were so wet behind the ears on how the world worked it defied belief.

One prick actually asked me to prove what the company share price was FFS.

At the other end of the scale you get the partners who can only think of the transaction they want to propose to get loads of fees. Had several of them in a meeting proposing a 20% rights issue followed by £750m share buy back. They looked a bit stumped when I said there are two windows for such moves after interim and full year results and going on the proposed interims would severely fuck the share price and strike prices of £500 m worth of share options I had maturing on the same event date. They hadnt even considered that, or the several million worth of communication that would be needed over it.

These people should not be allowed to breed.

 

[lemonjelly]

Sunak is clearly an out of touch cunt. I mean, asking homeless people if they're in "business" shows how out of touch he is, but also shows he doesn't listen to the people he is talking to.

 

[YoungWolf]

Much the same here. Found O level maths really easy, started A level and had a different teacher who was the maths world equivalent of Lage so did a Coady! Did some maths in first year of my biology degree and never used it.

Yeah, I was pretty good at GCSE maths, but seeing the work my brother had to do for A Level Maths a couple of years ago made me very pleased I chose not to do that!

 

[Tony Towner]

There's a difference between maths and numeracy. As long as people are numerate I see little point in the rest unless it's an area of expertise. There's little I learned after the age of about 11 or 12 that's been relevant in later life

 

[Tyrannosaurus Dan]

Maths was probably my favourite GCSE subject. A Level Maths was impossible and I was very glad I decided against taking it!

 

[Kenny]

Maybe this policy will stop football fans getting that easy sum of 2+2 wrong

 

[Dublin Drummer Wolf]

There's a difference between maths and numeracy. As long as people are numerate I see little point in the rest unless it's an area of expertise.

Totally agree. I was also shit at Maths in school and still am, but in this day and age we have so many tools to calculate numbers for us that we dont need to know the actual mechanics of maths, we just need to be comfortable with the concepts.
I work with numbers on a weekly basis and mainly use Excel formulas to calculate percentages, or Google it if I get stuck. This is the stuff that kids should be learning - how to work with spreadsheets, how to insert formulas and formatting etc. Makes you work more efficiently and saves time in the long run.

 

[lemonjelly]

Totally agree. I was also shit at Maths in school and still am, but in this day and age we have so many tools to calculate numbers for us that we dont need to know the actual mechanics of maths, we just need to be comfortable with the concepts.
I work with numbers on a weekly basis and mainly use Excel formulas to calculate percentages, or Google it if I get stuck. This is the stuff that kids should be learning - how to work with spreadsheets, how to insert formulas and formatting etc. Makes you work more efficiently and saves time in the long run.

Disagree with the bit in bold. It's dangerous to simply be trusting of the machines to calculate everything, and having the ability to do the mental arithmetic can enable you to pick up bugs in programmes etc which may spout incorrect calculations.
In a previous job I used to calculate peoples benefit entitlements. Being able to do this manually was invariably more accurate than the benefits calculators people would use.

TT is correct though, and what we ought be exploring is making people comfortable with using numeracy instead of wanting to run a mile.

I am one of those who was really good at GCSE maths, and took it at a level. Fuck me, another language! after a few months teacher threw a surprise test at us, and then spoke to me at the end of the lesson, suggesting my mark of 3% suggested this wasn't working well, and I dropped it. And he was right.