Thank you, Dame Maria, for presiding over the debate, and I thank colleagues for their contributions. The hon. Member for Glenrothes (Peter
Grant) posed a number of questions and highlighted a number of examples of the bad use of maths that, I suspect, would have had many of our colleagues scratching their heads, not quite understanding what he was alluding to. That probably demonstrates why so few of our colleagues have come to speak in today’s debate.
The hon. Member for Portsmouth South (Stephen Morgan) reminded me of Douglas Adams, one of my favourite authors who is sadly deceased. Apart from writing “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy”, he also wrote “The Meaning of Liff”, and one of the great words I always remember from that book is “bodmin”—when a group of friends go out, the bill is presented and everyone puts in what they consider to be their share, there is always a balance left. That is a “bodmin”—the balance that someone has failed to calculate. I thank the hon. Member for his offer of taking up a mathematics tutorship, but I am looking forward to continuing to represent the good citizens of Harrow East for many years to come.
My right hon. Friend the Minister, of course, has relayed exactly what the Government are laying out on numeracy. One of the important points that the Government are taking action on is rolling out a clear programme for young people in schools and beyond, enabling them to acquire those skills. We need to combat the gender gap in maths as well, because at the moment, from bitter experience, young women tend to move away from mathematics in an unfair way. Those who do go into mathematics are highly skilled and brilliant and succeed in life, but we need to get this idea that mathematics is not cool—it is not for them—out of the system in many respects. Equally, I was glad that the Minister relayed some of the actions that the Government are taking to combat the lack of numeracy in older people. That is holding our country back, and we need to ensure that those people who possibly have a great fear of maths and do not want to share that fact get the skills they need, so that they can contribute to our society in a far better way.
Dame Maria, I thank you and others for the debate. I thank the Backbench Business Committee for allowing us to have it, and note the fact that we have managed to continue the debate long after the main Chamber has adjourned. That just proves how important mathematics is, not only in today’s society but in the future.
Question put and agreed to.
Resolved,
That this House has considered National Numeracy Day.
3.50 pm
Sitting adjourned.