Numeracy (lack of)

Rich of March House

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Tuesday, November 6. 2007

Numeracy (lack of)

Have a read of this.

I like the bit where the young lady says I phoned Camelot and they fobbed me off with some story that -6 is higher - not lower - than -8 but I'm not having it.

"Fobbed me off"?  She's clearly an idiot.  Maths and numeracy are so important.

Posted by Rich in Rant at 17:44 | Comments (8)
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The people who actually understand numbers select themselves out of the scratch card "sample" because they understand enough to know it's a mug's game.
#1 jeremyp on 2007-11-06 19:41 (Reply)
This is depressing.

I know a 3 year old who understands that -6 is higher than -8, so it's not THAT hard a concept to grasp.

Sheesh.
#2 MMM (Homepage) on 2007-11-06 19:52 (Reply)
A teensy weensy dash, signifying minus could nave been missed. Then again, I am sure a lot of people dont understand the concept of negative numbers. I bet they do if you show them their overdraft though
#3 lordhutton on 2007-11-06 19:56 (Reply)
By the way, you missed a glorious piece of irony:

"Almost three times as many UK adults (15.1m) have poor numeracy - the equivalent of a G or below at GCSE maths - than with poor literacy skills, according to the government's Skills for Life survey."
#4 jeremyp on 2007-11-06 19:57 (Reply)
Good spot!

Some of the commenters on the news story also picked up on that. Journalism must have very low entrance requirements.
#4.1 Rich (Homepage) on 2007-11-06 20:21 (Reply)
I'm not the sharpest tool in the box with regards to numbers (with regards to anything, actually) but dear God that scares me.

What really does make me shake my head is disbelief is that the article, although including her idiotic statement, seems to be taking her side on the issue. The long winded quote from Peter hall almost seems to excuse the mistake, rather than explain it.
#5 Kouros on 2007-11-07 07:09 (Reply)
It claims that about one in three people have poor numeracy skills - but in my experience it's even higher than that - maybe as high as one in four or even five !
#6 Rhian on 2007-11-07 20:24 (Reply)
They read that story out on The News Quiz. We laughed lots.
#7 Lisa on 2007-11-14 12:34 (Reply)
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