AQA unveils the future of numeracy assessment at parliamentary reception
Educators, MPs, researchers and students, among others, gathered in Parliament on Tuesday for a reception sponsored by Afzal Khan, MP for Manchester Rusholme, which is home to AQA’s head office.
Financial education was the theme of the reception this year - something that students, teachers and policymakers have been saying needs to improve.
As AQA said in its submission to the Curriculum and Assessment Review call for evidence, millions of adults in England have low numeracy skills - a number that's been stubbornly high for a long time. Indeed, the OECD has estimated that 10 million people in the UK are financially illiterate, and that the UK ranks in the bottom half of OECD countries when it comes to financial literacy.
The reception was an optimum opportunity to see an innovative new numeracy app that combines teaching, learning and a test. AQA is developing the app that will be universal and on-demand - whenever students, aged between 14 and 19, are ready to take it.
The numeracy test aims to allow students to show their real-life numeracy skills in a way that sits alongside GCSE Maths. Numeracy test questions are based on common real-life scenarios to do with:
- starting a business
- how credit cards actually work
- understanding a monthly payslip
- mobile phone contracts
- which train ticket type is the best value
- how to manage money properly
Students who sit the test will not be graded but will instead be told that they either passed or failed.
At the parliamentary reception, guests, including MPs, had the opportunity to put their numeracy skills to the test.
In his speech, Afzal Khan MP said he had been blown away by the enthusiasm of the students he met when he visited the AQA office in Manchester last October. On financial education, Afzal said that research showed that teaching children early makes them more likely to save money, have a bank account and be more confident with money management.
AQA CEO Colin Hughes said:
"We strongly believe that academic mathematics is a fine and wonderful thing. But we have a hole in our system, which is that an awful lot of students leave school and often struggle with real life mathematics as I would prefer to call it - the kind of numeracy that you need in real life.
"That's why we've launched a pilot test for financial literacy that students will be able to take when they are ready. And it's like a driving test in that if you can do it then you pass.”
AQA will also develop similar tests for digital and literacy fluency. This is all very much in keeping with the charitable purpose of AQA.
Among those who sat the tests were members of the Student Advisory Group, which is now in its sixth year. It gives young people a seat at the table of the UK’s largest awarding organisation for GCSEs and A-levels. It means that 18 young people from across England have the opportunity to share their views on the curriculum, assessment and qualifications. Since the group was formed, students have:
- fed into consultation responses
- presented to our trustees
- given evidence in Parliament
- shared views on proposed books
If you want to read more about the importance of numeracy, literacy and digital fluency then you can read our report, Towards new assessments for Numeracy, Literacy and Digital Fluency.
And you can see an animation that makes the case for a numeracy test below.