𝓤𝓷𝓲𝓽𝓮𝓭 𝓝𝓮𝔀𝓼

Britain is in the grips of a deepening crisis of numeracy in the young, a leading peer has said. It follows reports that the treasury dropped a critical maths test for new recruits. Mandarins ditched the Numerical Reasoning Test (NRT) and claimed it was having an “adverse impact on candidate diversity”

Now Lord Agnew, a former Treasury Minister, has said the news is “just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to Britain’s deepening crisis with numeracy.” Speaking to the Daily Express, the peer, who chairs the Numeracy for Life Committee in the House of Lords, warned that there has been an “unmistakable lowering of the importance we place on numerical skill right across our institutions” which was having a “devastating effect”.

Initially revealed by The Spectator, the Treasury removed the tests because the department wanted a “diverse ethnicity at assessment centre”.

It argued that “having two tests creates an additional ‘hurdle’ for candidates to jump over and another opportunity for candidates to be sifted out of the process.”

The information, revealed through freedom of information requests, meant the test was scrapped and that new entrants no longer need to prove they can do basic numeracy.

“We have a country where millions of adults are paying a lifetime Innumeracy Tax, costing individuals hundreds of pounds a year and society billions of pounds every year in lost productivity, poor financial decision-making, and reduced economic growth,” the peer warned.

He fumed that the response from HM Treasury had been to “quietly sweep numerical reasoning under the carpet rather than hold the line on standards.”

Lord Agnew added: “When the Treasury, of all places, starts treating maths as an obstacle rather than a prerequisite, you have to ask whether anyone in Whitehall is seriously grappling with the scale of the problem. We should be making numeracy a national mission, not making excuses for why we can’t expect it of our own civil servants.

“Andy Burnham talks of growth in every postcode. He’ll struggle to deliver it with a Treasury that is lowering the Bar for the people meant to be doing the sums.”