Students to learn about mortgages in ‘real life’ maths course

Sixth formers will learn how to calculate a mortgage, run a business and play the stock markets under plans for a new sixth-form qualification in ‘real life’ maths, it has been announced.

Up to 230,000 students in England could take the core maths course when it is introduced from September 2015 as part of a drive to stop students dropping maths altogether at the age of 16.

The two-year qualification will be worth half an A-Level and will count towards higher education admissions – encouraging students to take the exam to secure university places.

The maths course has been designed to build on concepts already covered in GCSE maths but will be less demanding than the full A-Level.

Subjects covered as part of the qualification include:

• Using different data sources to determine changes to average house prices over the course of a year and calculating the value of a mortgage loan.

•          Developing an advanced understanding of statistics, financial maths and modelling, including understanding investments and analysing trends in popular growth.

•          Using maths in business settings, with pupils asked to calculate costs, estimate demand and set a selling price for products to maximise profits.

•          Learning about the impact that income tax rates and National Insurance contributions have on family finances.

•          An introduction to foreign exchange rates, with pupils calculating loss in pounds as a percentage of the original amount paid to the cashier for the euros should they sell them back.

Nick Gibb, the schools minister said. “England has been falling behind other countries’ maths performance, which is why we have launched a new maths curriculum to match the best in the world and are introducing rigorous new GCSE and A-Level maths qualifications.”

“Only one fifth of pupils in England continue to study maths at any level after achieving a GCSE – the lowest of 24 developed countries.”

“These new core maths qualifications will help address a 16 to 18 ‘maths gap’ whereby students who achieve a good maths grade at GCSE currently drop the subject and start to lose their confidence and skills”

From 10ticks point of view this is good news, as the longer a student is taught maths the more they will benefit later in life. Learning real life math situations will also help to keep students engaged with maths, as they will see real benefits to the course and won’t be able to use the age old excuse of “when am I ever going to use this in real life” and switch off.