Official figures

 

According to a YouGov poll (commissioned by Maths Anxiety Trust in 2022) between 20% and 30% of secondary maths teachers report that during lessons they sometimes suffer from maths anxiety (‘a negative emotional reaction leading to varying degrees of helplessness, panic and mental disorganisation when faced with a maths problem’). For 5-10% of teachers, this was reported to occur ‘often’. The percentages were similar for secondary maths teachers, for primary teachers and for teaching assistants.

 

One reason for this may be that many teachers believe they have not been sufficiently trained to teach maths (17% of primary, 44% of secondary maths teachers and 32% of teaching assistants), with most of these admitting that they are not confident about their ability to explain maths to pupils, or in some cases about their own knowledge.

 

Extract friom YouGov Survey

Commissioned by Maths Anxiety Trust in June 2022

 

 

36% of younger (15-24 year-olds) people feel anxious about maths, compared to 10% of older (65+)

 

20% of adults in Great Britain have felt anxious when confronted with a mathematical problem

 

23% of parents of children aged 5-15 report that their eldest child often feels anxious when attempting to solve a maths problem

 

80% of adults have never heard of the term Maths Anxiety

 

Extract from the Ipsos MORI poll, commissioned by

Maths Anxiety Trust in May 2018