ABSTRACT
According to research surveyed in a recent Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA) review of curricular aims, ‘parents, governors and employers all saw mathematics and English as the most important subjects’ (QCA, 1998: 35). Is mathematics’ high position in the academic pecking order justified? Are there good reasons to support it? In particular – and this is the main topic of this chapter – are there good reasons for its being compulsory from the age of 5 to 16?
